The Truth Decays
by Marz1
Summary: Edward Elric can't get back to his own world, so he tries to make a life for himself in the closest one he can find. Yep a nice quiet life, no military breathing down his neck or monsters trying to live forever, but then a kid in an orange jumpsuit...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist. I live in a box under the freeway. Don't sue me. Props to Masashi Kishimoto and Hiromu Arakawa, who own the characters and most of the setting.

**Spoilers / Setting**: Set starting chapter 144 in the Naruto Manga, and post Manga slightly AU for Fullmetal (since I don't know how the series ends.) There may be spoilers for up to Volume 15.

**Summary**: A Fullmetal & Naruto Crossover, (as if the disclaimer hasn't given that away). Ed ends up extra dimensional after the final showdown with the forces of Evil in Amestris. With no way home, he tries to get by in a new world, and keep out of trouble. But when does anything ever work out as planned for Ed?

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 1**

Naruto glared at the pillows, and after a moment of intense thought, put his feet up on them. That would show that jerk. Nobody liked a pillow that smelled like feet. Of course he had to mess up his own pillow too, to make sure the pervert sage couldn't just trade with him. He frowned and went back to looking at the wall.

Stupid pervert sage, off chasing women when he was supposed to be teaching cool jutsu. Naruto was so mad he couldn't concentrate. Well, mad and bored. No, mostly bored he decided as he thought about it. He went to the window and looked out. The pervert sage probably wouldn't be back for hours, and this was the second time ever Naruto had been out of Konoha. He pushed open the window and used his chakra to climb down the wall. He'd have a look around and be back before he was noticed.

The city was crowded but once he got a few blocks out of the 'fun' district, it wasn't quite as elbow-to-the-head-every-other-step, sardines-in-a-tin crowded. Naruto supposed it was a pretty good city. The people, if they noticed him at all, smiled at him. Of course it wasn't likely that he'd run into a cool ninja willing to teach him jutsu, but that wasn't likely to happen at home either.

He was wandering through a street that seemed to sell nothing but hats when he saw the light. It was blue and then gold and Naruto would have called it pretty, except that was an un-cool and girly thing to say. It was coming from inside a store that sold mostly knit hats with weird frilly things on them. Despite that he entered the shop.

Inside there was an old lady with a scowl and a teenage boy with a scowl and they were arguing and pointing at a small pile of cash on the counter.

"-cost you a hundred times more if you had to replace it!" the boy said.

"All I saw was flashing lights! How do I know you did anything?" the old woman demanded.

"You could look at it, you batty wrinkled old-"

"How dare you speak to me that way you foul-mouthed runt?!"

"Who are you calling short, you demented miniature hag?"

"You…you tiny swindler!"

"Swindler? Fine!" the boy shouted. "I can just put it back the way it was."

"Good point," the old lady said with a sudden smile.

She reached into her apron and pulled out another bundle of cash. She grinned at the boy and slapped it down on top of the pile, and he scooped it up with a smirk.

"You need a hat, kid?" the old lady asked Naruto as if he had appeared only then.

"What was that light?" Naruto asked.

The old woman's scowl returned. "Look what you did!" she yelled at the teenager. "You are stealing my customers!"

"I'm drawing them in you doddering geezer! Who would come inside just for hats? And now the roof isn't going to fall on them either!"

"How dare you insult my work? Hats are my life! I have a hat for everyone! Even _**this**_ boy would look good if he had one of my hats!"

"Uh…hey!" Naruto complained, realizing she meant him.

Naruto wasn't really sure how it happened but after a few minutes of loud discussion between the woman and the teenager, somehow Naruto was standing outside wearing a gray fur hat with abalone buttons in a swirling pattern on it, (which didn't match his orange jumpsuit at all) and the teenager was walking away up the street.

"Hey wait!" Naruto called.

The teenager stopped.

Naruto thought the other boy looked a lot like him. He wasn't that much taller than Naruto, but he got the impression the other boy was older than he looked. He had blond hair like him, though it was longer and done back in a braid. But he had gold eyes instead of blue.

Naruto didn't see a forehead protector on him, or any ninja insignia, but the teenager did have a black cross embossed on the back of his red vest. The cross had a snake curled around it and a crown with wings above it. Maybe it was a clan symbol or something. The teenager's other clothes were all black; black pants, long sleeved shirt, even black gloves despite the heat. He was carrying a messenger bag with the word "repairs" embroidered on the side.

"Hey mister!" Naruto said, running to catch up. "What was that light? Was that a jutsu?"

"Jutsu? You mean those ninja spell things?" the teenager asked.

Naruto nodded.

"Naw," the teenager said. "I'm not a ninja."

"Oh," Naruto said. "I thought it might've been a jutsu, cause I am a ninja and I'm trying to learn as many jutsu as possible cause I'm going to be the best ninja ever and they're going to pick me to be Hokage for sure."

"Uh…right. Good luck with that," the teenager said.

He turned and started walking again.

"Hey wait mister!" Naruto said. "If that wasn't jutsu what was it?"

"It was just a little alchemy," the teenager said.

"What's alchemy?" Naruto asked, following along as the other boy turned up the next block.

"It's the science of transmutation," the teenager said.

"Um…I don't understand," Naruto said. "Does it have math in it or something? I'm bad at math."

The teenager sighed. "Don't you have somewhere to be kid?"

"No, not really. The old pervert left me in the hotel room so he could chase women, but I got bored so I'm looking around," Naruto said. "So far this is a pretty neat place."

"Your dad just left you in a hotel?" the teenager asked.

"He's not my dad," Naruto said, slightly disturbed by the thought. "I don't have one. He's just some old guy who said he'd teach me some jutsu if I helped him find this woman he used to know, but then he went chasing this other woman, who I'm pretty sure he just saw right then. Anyway do you know if anyone around here knows any jutsu?"

"Sorry kid, I don't know any ninja and I try to keep it that way."

"Aw!" Naruto said. "How come you don't like ninja?"

"I didn't say I didn't like them," the teenager said. "I'm just trying to stay out of trouble, and ninja and trouble are synonymous in this country."

"What's synonymous?" Naruto asked.

"It means the same thing."

"The same thing as what?" Naruto asked.

The teenager sighed again. "If I buy you food, will you stop talking?"

"Uh…sure!" Naruto said.

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Uzumaki Naruto was one weird kid.

Ed had come to that conclusion within 5 minutes of meeting him. The smaller boy had introduced himself to the waiter when they got a table at a restaurant, though he hadn't bothered to do so with Ed. Perhaps he assumed Ed knew who he was, or it had slipped his mind. The kid seemed to have a very slippery sort of mind.

He did finally ask Ed to identify himself in a roundabout way. Naruto had asked him "who do you think you are?" after Ed ordered extra vegetables on his behalf. Ed had asked Naruto who _he_ thought Ed was, which finally prompted him to request an introduction. Ed was a bit concerned that someone had let the kid wander around outside unsupervised, but based on what the kid had said between mouthfuls of mooched food, he didn't appear to have anyone looking after him anyway.

Ed was kind of amazed by the kid's ability to eat. It wasn't that Ed wasn't eating more than a normal person might. Nor did he think he couldn't pay the check. This land had no rules against transmuting gold from base metal, and it wasn't likely Ed would end up making enough to destabilize the economy anyway. Still if the kid kept eating, stuff would have to start coming out one end or the other. The human stomach only held about a liter after all.

"-but I'm gonna' be way cooler than Sasuke bastard! And then Sakura will go on a date with me, do you think, maybe?" Naruto said.

Ed was also kind of impressed at the kid's ability to eat and talk at the same time. Maybe it was a ninja skill. Ed tried not to snort. He wasn't sure he believed anything this weird little chatter box was saying, but it was kind of nice to have company. Still if this kid was some kind of ninja in training, he'd better move along soon. The ninja here seemed much more dangerous than the one's he'd tangled with from Xing in his own world. He'd avoided the local military authorities since falling into this strange world, and he didn't want to be found by them now.

"Hey Ed! How do you get a girl to like you? I mean besides with just awesome ninja skill?" the kid asked before cramming five tempura shrimp into his mouth.

_I'm not really the best person to ask…_Ed thought, trying not to remember too much about the home and the people he wasn't ever going to see again.

"I'd say buy her a wrench, but maybe we aren't thinking about the same kind of girl," Ed drawled.

"What would Sakura do with a wrench?" Naruto asked.

Ed shrugged. "Fix things, hit people-"

"She does like to hit people!" the kid said, nodding. But then he frowned. "But she likes to hit me the most, so maybe that's not a good idea. She already punches pretty hard."

Ed nodded. The kid inhaled three more sushi, and then leaned back with a happy sigh, followed by a burp. Apparently the kid had filled all of his stomachs. Ed estimated that Naruto possessed between 5 and 8. Ed waved for the check.

They wandered outside. It was late afternoon and the streets were still pretty crowed. Ed thought he saw something dart from one roof to the next above them, but didn't pay that much attention. He'd seen ninja jumping between roofs in the first village he'd stumbled into after falling out of the void. It just wasn't that impressive anymore.

"Hey! Dango!" Naruto declared. "You got dinner, so I'll buy dessert!" he declared pulling out a wallet that was almost bursting at the seams with cash.

If Ed had been drinking, he would have done a spit take.

"Kid, don't wave money around like that," he said.

"Hu?" the kid said.

"If people see you've got that much on you it's like begging to be robbed," Ed said.

"Oh, I don't worry about stuff like that," the kid said. "I'm an awesome ninja. Nobody will mess with me!"

Ed suppressed an eye-roll, but the effort caused the rest of his face to spasm.

"Alright, maybe," he allowed. "But what if there's a pick pocket? What if you have to run somewhere and you drop it? Even if you're sure you don't have to worry about bandits, it's a bad idea to keep all your money in one place, especially when traveling. Shit happens."

"Hu?" the kid asked.

"It can't hurt to be careful," Ed tried to explain. "Whenever we were traveling, me and my brother would each carry half the money, in case one of us lost it."

_Or at least we did after I lost all our money for the fifth time_, Ed thought frowning faintly.

"You have a brother?"

"I used to," Ed said.

_Maybe somewhere I still do._ He thought. _Maybe Al found his way through the void. Maybe he'd stayed out of it like I told him to. Maybe, maybe…_

"Oh," Naruto said, looking awkward for about 1\10th of a second. "So what kind of Dango do you want?"

"I don't know," Ed said, fairly certain his advice hadn't sunk in. "Let's see what they got."

They got into line and the kid started chattering about his favorite flavor and how there should be ramen flavored Dango, when two shadows fell over them. Ed glanced back and saw two guys in weird black robes with red clouds on them. They both had those ninja headbands, one with the same whirly leaf thing as Naruto had; the other had four little squiggles. The guy with the squiggles looked kind of like a fish, but Ed wasn't going to say anything. It wasn't like he hadn't seen weirder. They were still pretty creepy, but that one had the same band as Naruto, so that meant they were on the same side he supposed. It probably wasn't the kid's trainer, since the leaf guy couldn't be called an old man. Ed thought he and the stranger were probably about the same age.

"Uzumaki Naruto," said the leaf guy in a completely toneless voice.

The kid turned to look at the speaker, and all the color drained from his face.

"You will come with us."

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Naruto froze. The guy looked like Sasuke, well and older version of Sasuke anyway, and he had the sharingan, Naruto could see the black tome spinning against red in the stranger's eyes. Naruto wanted to run but he couldn't even make himself blink. The other people in line for Dango had no trouble fleeing.

_Why can't I move?_

"What's your problem?" Ed asked the looming strangers.

Naruto wanted to warn his new friend that these were very dangerous people and he probably shouldn't be rude, but his lungs were broken. He couldn't even gasp for air.

"You can go," the one who looked like Sasuke said to Ed.

"Oh, I can go?" Ed drawled with a scowl. "Well you can go to **hell** and take your goldfish boyfriend with you."

Naruto realized there was another man behind the Sasuke look alike. That guy did look kind of like a fish, now that Naruto thought about it, maybe a shark instead of goldfish. And he was apparently an offended shark, because he'd taken a huge sword off his back and was swinging it in a horizontal cut faster than Naruto's eyes could track. Though the blade was still wrapped, he was sure Ed was about to be cut in half. The blade struck Ed's right arm and Naruto started at the metallic clang.

The force of the blow lifted Ed off the ground. The teenager kept his weight on his right arm and rolled over the blade, landing in a crouch. Scraps of his black sleeve and the white wrappings from the blade floated around them as the shark faced man shouldered his sword again. Naruto didn't know what was more surprising, the fact that the shark man's sword was covered in funny little spikes rather than being a solid blade, of the fact that Ed's right arm was covered in metal.

"What do you suppose he is, Itachi?" the shark man asked.

Naruto knew he'd heard that name somewhere before, but he couldn't remember where.

"It doesn't matter," Itachi said.

"I guess not," the shark man said.

He swung the sword again. Naruto's legs were just starting to function again, but they felt like jelly as he tried to move toward Ed. It seemed like Ed didn't really need his help at that moment anyway.

The blade was coming left to right, and this time Ed fell back under it with his hands pressed together as if in prayer. As the blade passed over, Ed reached up and slapped it.

The blade screamed.

The shark man snatched the sword back and it's screaming died back to a whine. Ed was just getting back up when the shark man lunged forward, kicking him right in the center of the chest. Naruto heard ribs crack and Ed went flying backwards across the street. A moment before his head collided with the brick wall of a building, a green blur scooped him out of the air.

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A last second rescue by a guy in a green leotard wasn't exactly what Ed was hoping for, but it beat the hell out of death by brick wall.

"You again?" the shark guy said.

"Indeed it is I!" the green-bowl-cut-ballerina said. "The noble blue beast of Konoha!"

"Um…could you put me down?" Ed asked in a wheezy voice. He knew the inability to catch his breath meant broken ribs. This guy wasn't quite as bad as Armstrong about manhandling the injured, but Ed wanted to be somewhere else if this guy decided to pirouette or something. The green guy set him down and Ed just barely managed to keep his feet.

"What did you do to my sword, runt?" the shark man growled.

"Same thing I'm about to do to your face you fish freak!" Ed roared, forgetting all about his busted ribs. He was about to charge in, but the green guy caught the collar of his vest.

"Do not be so hasty!" he ordered.

As soon as he said that another kid charged past them. Ed didn't see much but a blur, but the new kid looked a lot like the monotone freak, Itachi, the fish guy had called him. He seemed to have red eyes too, but Ed didn't get a good look. The kid was yelling incoherently and his arm looked like it was on fire.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called, finally snapping out of whatever it was that had glued his feet to the street.

The Sasuke kid charged his taller look-a-like and took a swipe at him with the burning arm, but Itachi dodged, catching the arm and discharging all its energy into the street. Naruto started to glow red, which Ed assumed was a ninja thing, but the fish guy swung his sword at him and the red light vanished.

The green guy charged in to get Naruto away from the fish freak, and Ed focused on the kid fighting Itachi. Apparently the kid was trying to pull his arm out of the others' grip.

"You're in the way little brother," Itachi said.

He turned his hand slightly and snapped his little brother's wrist. Sasuke let out a gargling, choked off scream and collapsed in the street. Ed glared. He didn't know any of their history, but someone treating their little brother like that pushed all the wrong kinds of buttons for him.

"Hey you bastard!" Ed shouted. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

The bastard ignored him. (Or perhaps misunderstood, since Ed was at least half a foot shorter then him.)

Ed clapped his hands together and slammed them down on the sidewalk. The street around the red-eyed freak burst upward and transmuted chains coiled around the ninja's arms and legs. Ed darted around the chained freak and bent down to check on his wreck of a little brother. The kid was conscious but seemed in shock, his skin was colorless and he was sweaty and shaky. He was also trying to get up.

"Don't interfere," Sasuke said to Ed.

"Yeah, right," Ed said, pulling the kid up by his undamaged arm.

Ed looked back at the chained psycho, who was just standing there. Ed thought he'd at least try to escape.

And then he exploded.

There wasn't time to transmute a shield from the ground so Ed brought his hands together and transmuted the air. He used a bastardized version of his old C.O.s oxygen density alchemy, but instead of bringing oxygen together to burn, Ed pulled in as much nitrogen as possible. The wall of air blocked the flying shrapnel and took the worst of the shockwave. He and Sasuke were knocked off their feet, but they were able to get back up again.

"Did he just blow himself up?" Ed asked.

"No," Sasuke said. "It was a clone."

Ed was about to ask what the hell he meant when he was stabbed in the back. The cold feeling spreading through his lower body told him the knife was probably stuck in something important too. The pain didn't register until a moment later, but Ed was already lunging forward. The blade pulled free, but the leg Ed was bringing around in a sweep went through empty air.

The red-eyed weirdo was already twenty feet away, beating his younger brother into further pulp. Sasuke would get smacked down and crawl right back up again. His punches weren't anywhere close to connecting, but he kept trying and kept paying for it. Ed was now pretty much convinced the kid had a death wish.

_Why couldn't I just mind my own business?_ He grumbled to himself.

"Hey! You in the stupid red cloud dress!" Ed called.

Itachi let his younger brother fall in a heap on the ground.

_Ok, got his attention, now what do I do with it?_

Ed started to bring his hands together. He was planning on his usual automail-cover-plate-into-a-blade trick. But his arms just stopped moving. He looked in confusion at his hands, still six inches apart. It took him another second to process that the ninja was standing right in front of him grabbing both his wrists. Ed struggled to bring his hands together, but his arms might just as well have been trapped in stone.

_How strong is this guy?_

Ed looked him in the eye and glared. The guys' eyes started spinning. And then his pupils split open into a strange three pronged star shape. Ed was just considering driving a knee into the lunatic's nuts, since he was standing so close, when the street around them disappeared.

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**Author's Note**: Yeah I can't help it. Cliff hangers are my favorite way to end a chapter. Don't forget to review. And don't yell at me to work on my other stories. I've got writer's block with the stalled ones, and am trying to knock it loose with a plot bunny barrage.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 2**

Ed was standing in a wide open empty space. He looked at his hands and saw the wrong colors. His black gloves had gone white. The skin of his wrists was an odd blue color. He looked around and started slightly when he saw Itachi standing ten feet behind him, equally out of tone.

"This is Tsukuyomi, the nightmare realm," Itachi said in a monotone. "Here I control all time, space, and matter."

Blades shot up through the featureless ground, piercing Ed's feet and pinning them in place. He could feel the blades grating against bone as they pushed up. He leaned away from the blades to save the rest of his legs. The blades halted about three feet out of the ground.

_Oh crap! Crap! Sonofabitch! Goddamn bastard!_ Curses swarmed through his mind as he tried to figure out how this had happened. _Don't worry about how! Escape first! Figure later!_

Ed bent backwards intending to push off the ground lift his feet free, but as soon as his hands touched the ground two more blades shot out piercing and pinning his hands, and leaving him trapped in an awkward spine straining arch. Itachi was suddenly standing over him, with a sword in his hand, and Ed got a very bad feeling about the situation.

"You will explain the jutsu you used. Only then will I release you and end this agony."

"Go to hell," Ed growled, trying to figure out how he'd get his hands free.

Itachi jammed the blade into Ed's indefensible stomach. Ed squirmed, teeth gritted to keep from screaming, even as he felt vomit rushing up into his mouth.

"Where do you think we are now?" Itachi asked, his voice still without any kind of inflection.

The ninja jammed the blade in again, this time sliding it into Ed's chest, between two ribs. Ed felt something tear and suddenly he was drowning in blood.

"What did you do to Kisame's sword?" Itachi asked.

Ed tried to pull his feet up, or even just pull them straight back, slicing them off if he had to, but he had to get away. It wasn't working. He wasn't strong enough. His hands maybe…maybe if he pulled hard enough the blade would just slice out between the fingers… The blades were oriented that way. He tried to pull his right hand across and free from the blade, but it must've hit nerve.

_Wait…_

His eyes went to the twitching hands that were too weak to lift him. He looked at the torn glove on his bloody right hand.

"Wait a second," he mumbled, looking at his hand, moving his fingers as much as he was able. "What the hell?"

"Hell is-"

"Hey, you shut up for a second!" Ed interrupted.

Itachi responded by stabbing Ed in the throat. Aside from the new pain, Ed almost did not notice.

"Why does my right hand hurt?" he asked.

Itachi stabbed him again instead of answering.

_I don't have a right hand, and my automail doesn't transmit pain into my nervous system. I was standing on a street, and he grabbed my arms…and then…_

He couldn't remember that well. But one thing was clear. This was some kind of trick, a very painful trick, but still a trick.

"You know," Ed said as the blade was jammed into his thigh, "If you really control everything in this Tusky-yuppie thing, then how come you've got to ask me questions? If you're that in control, shouldn't you just know?"

"It does not matter. You will suffer-"

"-from your non-stop jabbering?" Ed asked. "I think I'm already at my limit for that."

Itachi stabbed him again, and Ed focused on the pain racing from the torn flesh, but he could feel something else besides the normal white flash of agony that usually accompanied serious abdominal wounds. It was a sort of echo, but it wasn't coming from where he was stabbed…Ed pulled against the blades pinning him, focusing on his right hand and left leg, the things that couldn't possibly be feeling pain, and focused on the echo following it back…to his eyes.

Ed shut his eyes, but nothing changed. The stabbing was almost frenzied now, and Ed tried to figure it out.

_If the signals were coming in through my eyes why hasn't-_ realization dawned _-Because I haven't really closed them!_

He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, focusing on flashes of pain, and the echoing in his head that must somehow be responsible for it. He searched harder, struggling to separate the echo from what his nerves were really telling him. With an insane amount of effort Ed really blinked.

The street was back, the noise of the ballerina and the fish-man's fight, and most noticeably, the creepy red eyed guy was back in front of him, still grabbing his arms. Ed grinned and swung up with his automail knee, but Itachi leapt away faster than Ed's eyes could track.

"How did you escape?" the monotone freak asked.

"Well let me just explain it to you so it _**won't**_ work next time!" Ed growled, clapping his hands together.

His muscles were telling him that he'd been stabbed, that he was too torn up to possibly move. He gritted his teeth and charge, forcing his body to obey. He knew the only thing that really hurt was the stab wound in his back. _Mind over matter and all that._

He ran towards Itachi. He'd already figures out the ninja was way too fast for him to land a punch, but Ed thought this was the kind of guy who would move to meet an attack…

And Itachi did. He blurred into motion. Ed threw himself down and to the side, with his right arm stretched out. He was hoping to graze flesh, but his hand only brushed cloth. Deconstruction began. Ed stumbled as something struck him in the right side of the chest, knocking the breath out of him. He managed to stay on his feet and turned to meet the next attack.

He noticed something was stuck to the front of his vest.

_The handle of a knife?_ _What? Why would he stick that to me?_

It took a gush of blood and a strained breath for his to realize it was an entire knife and that it was stuck _**in**_ him. Itachi hadn't taken advantage while Ed was distracted by a mortal injury. He just stood watching, even as the last of his red cloud cloak dissolved, eaten away by purple sparks. Ed clapped his hands and pressed them against his own chest, trying to remember what Al had told him about what Mei Chan had told him about Xing healing alchemy. He wished he'd paid a bit more attention; then again he'd never been great at organic alchemy. He thought it was bleeding a little less, though the attempt to stabilize his "chi" hadn't relieved any of the pains echoing around inside him.

"Don't suppose you're not allowed to fight without your favorite cloak or something?" Ed asked his opponent sullenly.

Itachi didn't answer, but he brought up his now bare arms and his hands blurred. Ed supposed that meant he was going to throw one of those jutsu spell things at him. Ed pressed his own hands together, even as the street started to grow dark and fuzzy at the edges.

_Not a trick this time…_

A shadow passed over him.

_Is that real or me blacking out?_

His answer came as the shadow's owner landed.

BOOM!

The ground shook and Ed lost his balance, falling to one knee. He could only gawk at the ten foot tall, multi ton, cherry red toad that was now blocking his view of Itachi. He might not have noticed there was a big old guy with a lot of white hair standing on the toad's head, if said old guy hadn't started shouting something about sages and being popular with women.

"Seriously, what the hell?" Ed muttered, slumping the rest of the way, to sit on the ground.

The old guy looked back over his shoulder at him. "Hey! You aren't Naruto!" he said, pointing an accusing finger at Ed.

"Get your eyes checked Grandpa!" Ed said, annoyed at how weak his voice sounded, even to his own ears. "He's over there," Ed said pointing back to where he'd last seen the orange boy, lurking at the edge of the ballerina and the shark jerk's fight.

"Oh, thanks," the old guy said.

The giant toad turned and hopped, landing a block away.

Ed could see Itachi again.

_I should probably get up_, he though tiredly.

He started to push himself up when an arm came around from his left side, and pressed a knife to his throat. Ed looked up the street, but Itachi was still standing there.

_One of those clone things?_ He thought.

Ed turned his head as much as he could without slicing himself on the knife, and saw it was Sasuke holding the blade.

"Why would you kill him, little brother?" Itachi asked.

"You want answers from him. You want something, so it should be taken from you," Sasuke said through clenched teeth.

"If you believe that, then kill him," Itachi said. "Spill the blood of a friend's friend. It's one step closer."

Ed looked at the kid who was leaning against him, breathing in his ear as he kept shaky pressure on the knife.

"You're too weak," Itachi said. "You don't have enough hate."

_What a stupid conversation to be having_, Ed thought. His vision was tunneling, and he started to shake. His body just didn't want to hold itself upright anymore. He realized he'd been ignoring the stab wound in his back.

_I should have stabilized that first…it's probably bleeding almost as bad as the lung…_probably worse since Itachi had pulled the knife back out of that one. Ed felt the world tilt and fell back against Sasuke. The other boy was too injured or too surprised to catch him. The knife slipped and Ed knew he had a cut on his neck. He didn't know how bad it was, but as the last of the light faded, he figured it was probably overkill either way.

_Literally overkill_, he realized, snorting with black humor as he passed out.

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_Stupid, stupid useless fox!_ Naruto growled to himself, slapping his hand against the seal on his belly, trying to wake the damn thing up. The shark man had stolen the first chunk of chakra the demon gave him, and now it was ignoring him. _Fine! I don't need you! I don't need to borrow chakra. I'm a ninja, damn it!_

But even his own chakra was sluggish. He tried to create some shadow clones, but the jutsu misfired and all he made was smoke. _Fine! I don't need that either!_

He pulled a kunai and pitched it at the shark man. The ninja didn't even bother to look at it as he side stepped it. Naruto growled, grabbed a handful of shuriken, and charged forward. Maybe he could hit him if he was closer. He drew back his arm to throw, only to be kicked in the stomach. He landed on his butt, thirty feet back with the breath knocked out of him, and it wasn't even the shark man who had kicked him. It was master uber brows.

"Stay back, Naruto!" Gai said, without bothering to look at him either.

"I can help!" Naruto wheezed.

"Help by finding Lord Jiraiya!"

But Naruto didn't even know where to start looking; back at the Hotel? What if something happened while he was gone? And Gai hadn't told Sasuke to run away. Why did everyone think Naruto was useless compared to him?

_No! I can help! I fooled Zabuza! I can fool this guy. They even look kind of alike,_ he noted, _thought Zabuza was just eyebrow-less, instead of shark-faced. But I've got no chakra and he dodged my kunai easy…So look for a weakness…right…super strong, fast, giant sword…but he has a shark face_. _That has to be something. What are sharks afraid of? Fish hooks? Nets? Woks? Grills? Fire? I don't have any good fire jutsu!_

Naruto looked up the street and then down the block, past the Dango stand. _There!_

He took off running.

The shark man tried to follow him. Naruto could see him charging from the corner of his eye, but uber brows got in his way, and the shark man was forced to dodge a kick that knocked in the side of a building. Naruto ran to the shop he had seen and leapt over the counter. There were two cooks cowering behind it and he barely avoided landing on them. There was a big pot of oil starting to smoke on the stove.

"Hey, can I borrow that?" Naruto asked.

The cooks gawked at him.

"It's to fight some evil ninja," Naruto added.

"Sure" one cook finally managed to choke out.

Naruto put the lid on the pot and picked it up, and then dropped it, searching for oven mitts. He noticed a basket of bottles on the counter as he located some.

"Can I borrow those too?" he asked.

"Ok."

"Thanks!"

Naruto stuffed the handle of the basket in his mouth and picked up the pot again. He leapt back over the counter and charged back towards the fight. He wasn't sure how he'd get his target without getting master uber brows, but he had some ideas. He focused on his chakra. It felt a little less screwed up.

_2 shadow clones are all I need!_ He thought as loudly as he could, in something like a prayer. He jumped at the nearest wall and focused chakra into his feet, managing to push off and run higher up the bricks above the two battling ninja. When he was thirty feet above them he pitched the pot into the air and leapt after it, his hands flashing through seals.

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Jiraiya didn't know how the world had gone so completely insane in the last 45 minutes, but he wanted to strangle whoever was responsible, and he probably wouldn't be able to, since odds were it was Naruto.

He found the bright orange brat just in time to see him throw a cooking pot at an S-class missing nin, and then dive after it. Hoshigaki Kisame, the nin in question, had of course already moved out of the way and was swinging around his sword, not doubt to do something really unpleasant to the boy falling towards him. Then a burst of smoke enveloped Naruto and two bright orange brats burst out of it a moment later, kicking off each other's feet to fly in opposite directions.

One Naruto flew after the cooking pot and kicked it, sending it flying towards Kisame again. Kisame started to dodge, but Gai charged at him and he was forced to deal with the bigger threat. He swung at Gai forcing him to back off and then brought his sword around to block the pot. Unfortunately for him, when the pot bounced off his sword, the lid popped off. Hot oil and scorched calamari splashed over him.

Kisame turned toward the nearest Naruto with murder in his eyes. But the boy and his clone had already moved on to the next step in their unfathomable plan. One of them was holding a basket of condiment bottles and the other was grabbing items out of it, and pitching them at the enraged missing nin. Kisame growled and charged towards them.

A bottle of soy sauce missed by a mile, but the bright red chili oil clipped Kisame's shoulder and soaked his Akatsuki cloak. A jar of sesame seeds shattered against his forehead protector even as he swung his sword around, Gai chasing him, too many steps behind.

The blade struck the two Narutos and they burst into clouds of smoke. Kisame looked even more pissed as he sidestepped Gai's attack. A bottle of vinegar nailed the missing nin in the back of his head.

"Nyah!" called a rather high voice from above him.

Jiraiya followed Kisame's upward gaze. Another Naruto, presumably the real one, was stuck to the side of a building above the fight. Jiraiya fought the urge to smack himself in the forehead. Kisame swung his sword against the ground and the whole street shook. The building Naruto was perched on cracked down the center and caved in. The boy tumbled toward the angry nin, along with a lot of bricks. Jiraiya saw the panicked look on the boy's face and hoped he realized how stupid he'd been.

Jiraiya tapped the toad he was sitting on and the summon animal's tongue flashed out, snatching Naruto out of the air and yanking him into its mouth, even as he yelped. Kisame glared up at Jiraiya, but didn't try to follow. Itachi suddenly appeared at his side, and Gai moved back to stand by Jiraiya's toad.

"Where's your cloak?" Kisame asked.

"Why do you smell like cheap stir-fry?" Itachi responded.

"Let me out!" Naruto's muffled voice called. "It smells really bad in here! It smells like frog breath!"

"So you Akatsuki have decided to make your move," Jiraiya said, hoping to get things back on topic.

"Indeed," Itachi said. "So it was you who informed Kakashi of our plans. To his regret, no doubt."

"What did he say about Kakashi sensei?" Naruto called.

"We will acquire the legacy of the fourth Hokage," Itachi said. "Now or later, it does not matter."

"Hey!" Kisame said. "We aren't leaving, are we? We haven't even torn a piece off the 9-tailed brat yet. We've got to kill at least one of them!"

"The other blond boy is dying. Kill the jonin if you must," Itachi said.

Gai tensed but Jiraiya was getting very sick of this, very fast. He leapt down from the toad's head, weaving seals as he dropped. He slammed his hands to the ground.

"Gamaguchi shibari! Toad mouth trap!" Jiraiya shouted.

The street blurred, stone turning to gummy pink and gray flesh. The surrounding buildings reacted the same way. Kisame stumbled as he sank past his ankles into the suddenly organic street.

"Let's go," Itachi said, looking mildly annoyed. It was the first facial expression Jiraiya had ever seen on him.

"Ha!" Jiraiya said. "No one's ever escaped from this!"

He pushed more chakra into the jutsu and the walls of flesh started to close in. Itachi and Kisame pulled their feet free and ran. Jiraiya was sure he had them trapped, but they turned a corner and there was the loud thumping sound. He sprinted after them, to find a hole burned through one of the flesh walls. He could see the two missing nin sprinting off in the distance. After sealing a sample of the smoldering black flame from around the hole, Jiraiya released the jutsu and walked back to Gai and the toad. Naruto was still wailing to be let out. He wave to the toad and it spat out a wet orange blob.

Naruto staggered upright, shaking off saliva. He whirled and pointed at the toad.

"Your breath smells like a public toilet!" he shouted.

"You taste like rotten milk and feet," the toad replied before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"I don't!" Naruto called after it.

The boy's angry look changed to one of confusion and then curiosity. Naruto licked the back of his own hand, apparently forgetting he was covered in toad spit. The horrified look on the boy's face almost made up for the aggravation of chasing him down. Naruto gagged, and Jiraiya was about to tell him off for being dumb, when the kid whirled again, this time looking surprised.

"Ed! Sasuke! Are you guys alright?!" Naruto called, apparently remembering the other people involved in the fight.

"Oh crap," Jiraiya mumbled.

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**Author's note**: Thanks everyone who reviewed the first chapter! Feel free to say more about the second one!


	3. Chapter 3

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 3**

"Ed! Hey Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed!" Naruto called as he ran down the street. "Sasuke? Where are you guys?"

He finally found Sasuke, sitting in the street, glaring at him. Naruto supposed he was just being a jerk and not answering. He was sure giving him a funny look.

"Hey Sasuke?" Naruto asked his teammate. "Have you seen Ed?"

Sasuke pointed with his left hand. His right arm looked funny and his face was a mess.

"Hey do you need help or something?" Naruto asked. "You look like you got your ass kicked."

Sasuke glared at him. "I'm fine. Go check on your friend. I think he's dead."

Naruto rushed to where Sasuke pointed. He saw Ed clearly then, with a knife sticking out of his chest, lying in a puddle of blood.

"Ed! Ed? Are you OK?" he shouted.

Ed's face was colorless and slack, but he was still breathing and his eyes were open a little bit. He didn't blink or anything when Naruto waved a hand in his face. Naruto went to pull the knife out but Master uber brows was suddenly there grabbing his wrist.

"If you pull it out, the bleeding will only get worse," the green Jonin warned.

"Then what do I do?" Naruto asked. He couldn't recall any of the medical lessons from the academy.

"Go help your teammate with his injuries," he said. "I will attempt to stabilize your friend enough to transport him to Konoha for medical treatment."

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Maito Gai was having an odd sort of day. Then again things tended to go oddly whenever he did anything, though he usually wasn't aware of it. Earlier that day he'd seen his eternal rival, Hatake Kakashi struck down and left in a coma by the villainous Itachi Uchiha. Gai had sworn he'd protect his rival's students from that fate, or he would run to Wind country and back on his hands!

Gai shook he head and focused on the situation.

As the missing nin fled before lord Jiraiya, it seemed his promise was kept. Though a bit roughed up, Uchiha Sasuke was not seriously injured, broken ribs, a broken arm, perhaps a concussion. For a ninja that was nothing. Naruto was alright as well, despite his rather baffling attempt to take on an S-class ninja using fast food. But Gai did not think things would've come out so well, had this boy, Ed, not intervened.

Gai had managed to keep Naruto from making the situation worse, but there wasn't much Gai could do to make it better. He frowned at the blood as he inspected the stab wounds. Itachi had injured Ed, but hadn't bothered to kill him, that either meant the rouge Uchiha was getting sloppy, or he meant for Ed to survive. Gai hadn't been able to focus on Ed's fight with Itachi as much as he'd have liked too, but he knew Itachi had tried to use the Mangekyo sharingan on the boy, and Ed had shrugged it off.

He sliced through the vest and shirt, still going over how he was going to keep the knife from shifting while carrying the teenager back to the Village. He decided he should probably take off the armored gauntlet the teenager was wearing as well, but as he cut away more cloth, he saw it wasn't a gauntlet. To say Gai was stunned by what he saw was selling it a little short. He had noticed the boy's right arm and left leg moved rather stiffly. Gai was an expert in observation. It would be impossible not to notice something off about the boy's movement. But the articulation of the joints, range of motion, it was exactly what he'd expect from normal human limbs. But looking into the gap where the arm met the over lapping joints of the artificial shoulder, it was obvious the limbs contained no flesh and blood at all. It wasn't really relevant to the matter at hand, except it meant the boy had even less over-all blood volume than Gai had first estimated.

"What the hell is that?" Jiraiya asked, looking over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure," Gai said. "I've never seen metal grafted to flesh like this."

The teenager twitched and both shinobi saw the fingers of his metal hand move.

"Chakra strings maybe," Jiraiya muttered.

"We can worry about it later," Gai said. "Hold him upright for a moment."

"Do you have any blood pills or soldier pills?" Gai asked as he pressed a bandage to the boy's back and tied it down. "I can barely detect any chakra in his inner coils, and his heart's going to stop if I can't get his blood pressure up."

Jiraiya frowned. "My stuff's all back at the hotel. I'll see if the brats have anything."

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Jiraiya rolled his eyes as he approached the genin. Naruto had been bound and gagged with a roll of bandages and Sasuke was wincingly attempting to set his own broken wrist. Jiraiya pulled the cloth out of Naruto's mouth.

"I was trying to help you, jerk!" he shouted at his teammate.

The Uchiha kid just grunted.

"Where did you find that other blondie?" Jiraiya asked Naruto.

He looked confused for a moment, and then his mouth opened in shock. Naruto tried to look around him to where Gai was prepping the other boy for transport.

"Is he gonna' be OK?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know," Jiraiya said. "If Gai gets him to Konoha in time, maybe. Do you know anything about him? Does he have family around here?"

"I don't know. I just saw him fixing stuff at this store and I was asking him how he did it and he bought me food and this is all my fault!" Naruto said. "Hey what are Akatsuki? Also why are you here? I thought you were following that woman who winked at you?"

"She was under a genjutsu. Itachi sent her my way as a distraction. I saw through it right away! I meant to draw them out so I could finish them off, but you wandered away from the hotel. Where were you going?"

"Hey I was just looking around! I didn't know people were coming to kidnap me! You could 'a said something!"

"I didn't want you to panic," Jiraiya said.

"Nobody ever tells me anything important!" Naruto pouted. "Nobody tells me people are trying to kill me! Nobody tells me Kakashi-sensei is hurt! Nobody even tells me that I've got a freaking de-"

Jiraiya clamped a hand over his mouth. "Nobody tells you these things because you can't keep from blurting them out."

Naruto's eyes widened as he realized his uninformed teammate was sitting right next to him.

"Why is Itachi after Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

Jiraiya frowned. "It's classified. Naruto, do you have any idea where that kid, Ed is from?"

"Uhhhhhhh…Maybe something in his bag will say," the orange boy said after a minute of pained thought.

"He must've dropped the bag during the fight," Jiraiya said. "See if you can find it. It might save his life," he added when Naruto looked like he was going to keep talking.

"Roger!" the boy said, saluting and scrambling off.

Soon Naruto was out of hearing range, poking through the rubble of damaged buildings and peering into trashcans where the missing bag could not possibly be.

"Give me your arm brat," Jiraiya said.

The Uchiha brat glared at him.

"It ain't gonna set itself," Jiraiya said.

The brat continued to glare.

"What is he?" Sasuke asked.

"Who?" Jiraiya asked, carefully directing a spike of killing intent at him.

Sasuke didn't back down. "Naruto."

"He's your teammate," Jiraiya said.

"So what does Itachi want from my _teammate_?" Sasuke asked.

"Something he's got no right to," Jiraiya said. "Leave it alone brat. This is something that will get you killed sooner rather than later if you keep nosing around."

"I found it!" Naruto shouted, trotting back up the street with at dusty messenger bag in his hands. He flipped it open and riffled around. "I don't see any medicine in here or anything."

"Let me see," Jiraiya said.

He dumped the contents of the bag in the street. There were a few sets of socks and underwear, a change of clothes, a hair brush, a small case of toiletries, a wallet, some notebooks, a package of cookies and a big silver pocket watch. The I.D in the wallet was a well made forgery. It looked perfect but there wasn't any chakra in the seal on it. It claimed the teenager was from Tanzuka if that meant anything. The notebooks were filled with a strange loopy script Jiraiya had never seen before, and a lot of diagrams that might look something like seals if one were to squint at them very hard. The watch was welded shut.

"Does any of that help?" Naruto asked.

"Not right now," Jiraiya said.

"Well what else can I do?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing, kid," Jiraiya said. "You just have to hope Gai's fast enough and your friend is tough enough."

"But this is my fault!" Naruto said. "He wouldn't have been in trouble at all if he wasn't hanging around with me! I have to fix this!"

"You can't fix everything, kid. People die, especially ninja," Jiraiya said.

"But he's not even a ninja! This isn't right!" Naruto objected. "If those guys had a problem with me they should've…"

"Should've what?" Jiraiya asked. "Challenged you to a duel? Real ninja don't mess around like that. If Blondie over there hadn't slowed them down until Gai and I arrived, you'd probably be long gone by now."

"Gone where?" Sasuke butted in.

Jiraiya glared at the brat, half tempted to give him another whack on the head to put his lights the rest of the way out. But Gai couldn't afford to carry an extra brat back to Konoha, and Jiraiya sure as hell wasn't going to waste a day on him. "I don't know what they plan to do to him once they get him," Jiraiya said, mostly honestly. "Maybe experimentation, maybe dissection, maybe they just plan to cook him up and eat him. Your brother hangs out with a freaky crowd. Point is we aren't going to let them get Naruto, so their intentions at this point don't matter."

"They're planning to cook me and eat me?" Naruto interrupted shrilly. "I taste bad. That toad can tell them I taste really bad!"

"They probably aren't planning to eat you," Jiraiya said with a sigh.

"He was embellishing, you idiot," Sasuke said.

"What does this have to do with salad?"

"That's garnishing!" Sasuke said, putting his hand against his head as he winced in pain. "They wouldn't eat you. They'd be too afraid to catch stupid!"

Jiraiya really wanted a drink, sake, beer, turpentine. He wouldn't be picky.

"I'm going now!" Gai bellowed. They all turned to see him lift the injured teenager. "I will see you when you return to Konoha with that Lady! She will be able to help my eternal rival and this boy both."

Jiraiya was surprised Gai hadn't shouted the name of their target. He didn't think there were that many brains under that awful bowl cut.

"Run fast, master uber brows!" Naruto shouted, jumping and waving.

"I will get him there in time or I will run everywhere on my hands for the rest of my life! It's a promise!" Gai bellowed. The villagers, who were just coming out of their homes and businesses to check the damage, winced and ducked as Gai vanished in a green blur.

"You going to let me splint your arm?" Jiraiya asked Sasuke.

"I don't need help," Sasuke said, sulking.

"Can you walk?" Jiraiya asked.

Sasuke nodded.

"Good. Head back to the village, and bring this with you," Jiraiya said as he pushed Ed's things back into their bag. "Turn it over to the ANBU when you file your report. And if you even think about going after your brother, I'll hunt you down-" Sasuke glared sullenly at him, and Jiraiya decided to use a different threat. "-dye your hair pink, put you in a dress, and hang you upside down from the sign post in the village shopping district."

Sasuke looked very confused. Naruto laughed and pointed at him.

"You'll look like Sakura!" the orange boy jeered.

"You already look like Sakura," Sasuke growled, and then winced at his own dumb comeback.

"I do not!" Naruto said.

"Just go!" Jiraiya said, pulling Sasuke rather roughly to his feet and looping the bag over his head.

The dark haired genin winced as the bag bumped his injured arm, but Jiraiya didn't care anymore. Damned kids! He gave Sasuke a little push to get him moving.

"Hey!" Naruto said. "What if Sasuke gets attacked on his way back to the village? Shouldn't we go with him?"

"He doesn't need a babysitter," Jiraiya said.

It was probably the closest thing to a complement the Uchiha would ever get from him.

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It had taken Sasuke an hour and a half to reach the resort town Jiraiya had taken Naruto to, but it was long after dark before he got back to Konoha. One of the guards at the gate wanted to escort him to the hospital, but he hobbled there on his own. Sakura, his other annoying teammate, was waiting for him.

"Sasuke, are you alright!?" she shouted, running towards him across the lobby.

He thought it was rather obvious that he wasn't. The pink haired girl looked like she was going to try and hug him. He made sure he had room to dodge, but she skidded to a stop a few feet away.

"What happened?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he walked to the nurses' station.

"Gai-sensei rushed through here hours ago carrying Naruto-"

"It wasn't Naruto," Sasuke interrupted.

"Hu?" Sakura said. "It looked like-"

"It wasn't him," Sasuke said. "It's some guy Naruto was hanging around with. They don't even look that much alike."

"Well Gai-sensei went past me pretty fast," Sakura said. "Then where is Naruto? And what happened to you and Kakashi-sensei? Who were you fighting with?"

"No one," Sasuke muttered, finally catching a nurse's attention.

"Why won't you tell me what's going on?" Sakura whined.

"It's not like you could do anything if you knew," Sasuke said.

"How do you know? Maybe I could if you just told me-"

"Sakura," he grunted. "Go away."

He followed a nurse into one of the side rooms. Sakura didn't follow them into the room, but he could hear her shuffling in the hallway. She'd probably lurk there all night.

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**A Week Later, the Festival** **City**…

"…We'll train here too," Jiraiya said as they walked through the village.

Naruto looked at the crowd around them. From the overlook he had seen thousands of people milling around, laughing and smiling. He could see dozens of concession stands and game booths. He'd always wanted to go to a festival, and nobody here would tell him he couldn't buy from their stand, or that there was no space for him at the coin toss or the dunk tank. He smiled. He could finally go to a festival and…festivate? Was that even a word? He was about to ask the pervert sage when a blond kid in a red shirt ran past.

The kid didn't even look like Ed, but it sprang to the front of his mind. He'd put off thinking about it as they traveled. They had to find that lady after all. The pervert sage had explained she was a healer who could patch up stab wounds with next to no effort, and could probably help Kakashi as well. So Naruto had tried not to think about it. He was good at not thinking about things that made him sad.

"Do you think Master Uber Brows got him to the hospital in time?" Naruto asked.

"Hu?" Jiraiya asked. He'd been looking over his shoulder at a couple of women who'd walked past.

"Do you think Ed made it to the hospital in time? Do you think he's ok?"

"Probably," Jiraiya said. "He seemed like a tough little bastard."

"But what if he died?" Naruto asked.

"If he died there's nothing you can do about it," Jiraiya said. "You had the training at the academy, didn't you? People die in our line of work."

"I know! I've seen people die. I just don't want Ed to be dead," Naruto said. "People shouldn't just die when they try to help people you know?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Do you think he regrets it?"

"Hu?" Naruto asked.

"Do you think he regrets helping you out in that fight?" Jiraiya asked.

"I don't know. I guess he might if he was dead," Naruto said.

"Dead people don't have regrets. And I doubt he's dead," Jiraiya said. "It's a festival kid. Go play or something. I'm going to go collect intelligence."

Naruto nodded to himself for a moment. "Hey! I know! I'll win him something cool!" he declared.

"That's good. You got some money to spend?"

Naruto nodded. He was about to take out his wallet and show off all the cash he'd saved up, but then he remembered Ed telling him not to go waving his money around. "I've got money," Naruto said.

"Alright. I'll see you later. Carry this for me?" Jiraiya said, dumping his backpack in Naruto's arms and then vanishing into the crowd before he could object. Naruto made a face, but didn't bother to yell. He wandered off into the bustle of the festival, looking at the different game booths until something really awesome caught his eye.

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There were bright lights and every word he heard was garbled beyond understanding. Ed was aware that he was passing in and out of consciousness, but it was more confusing than just that.

He saw green, a shoulder and the side of someone's neck, dark hair, trees hanging above. Pressure under his back and legs told him he was being carried.

He saw a white ceiling, men and women in white uniforms with black tattoos on their hands reached over him, calling out questions.

And then there was a different white ceiling, this one bumpy and sound proofed. Something stuck up over his face. There were tubes coming out of it. And then that faded too.

It was replaced by darkness and a slow steady beeping.

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**Author's Note:** Sorry this is taking so long. February wasn't a good writing month for me. I called it the Festival city because I couldn't find the name of it anywhere. Don't forget to review!


	4. Chapter 4

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 4**

**Konoha**…

They scrubbed the floors everyday, the walls too, but it did little to get rid of the smell. He didn't mind the smell, but he knew it had a detrimental effect on others who worked in the interrogation department. It even floated into the file room, settling over papers and leaking out of the vents, along with distant, echoing screams. The place always reeked of terrified sweat.

Morino Ibiki hated reading reports filed by Maito Gai. He'd taken to assigning new security officers the task of lining out all references to "the power of youth" in black ink in the low risk reports. The top secret ones he still had to read in their gushing entirety. He'd even given Gai a fill-in-the-blank form, with no space for "creative" language, but Gai just turned it over and wrote on the back.

Ibiki reread the parts about the Akatsuki several times, but there wasn't much to add to the reports they'd received from Lord Jiraiya. They were probably the biggest concern in the 5 lands at the moment, more so then Orochimaru. After all, they'd had the balls to kick the snake-sannin out of their little demon hunting club. 

And then there was the injured teenager Gai had brought back. Though he wasn't nearly as interesting as a captured Akatsuki would be, the fact that the boy, "Ed", had put up a somewhat impressive fight against them made him worth some of Ibiki's time. The med-nin expected the boy to regain consciousness sometime in the next few weeks. 

When looking over Ed's medical report, the thing that stood out the most, of course, were the moveable yet detachable prosthetic limbs. The med-nin couldn't figure out how that much metal could be graphed to flesh without it being rejected. The links between the electrical system and the boy's nerves were even more interesting. The arm had been taken to the tech department for study, though they'd left the leg in place for now. They still didn't have a clue how it worked, and were itching to take the thing apart. Ibiki told them they could not. The researchers most likely would be able to put it back together, but sometimes it was just fun to make people suffer.

The strange technology was probably the least of it. According to Gai the boy had done jutsu with no chakra, and the medical report backed him up. The boy's chakra coils were as close to empty as you could get without being dead. When they'd first set the boy on the surgical table, knife still sticking out of him, they weren't sure how he'd survived the hour long run back to the village. Some non-chakra based energy seemed to be holding the wound in stasis. Unfortunately that energy also kept the medical jutsu from working. It slowed healing as much as it did dying, and they weren't able to help him until his heart stopped for a moment and the energy cut off. 

Ed's flesh and blood was all kinds of confusing as well. As far as they could tell he had no blood limit. His blood couldn't even be typed, and reacted even to O-. Blood pills didn't get processed, no matter how many they stuffed down his throat, and it took twice the calories it should have to get Ed's blood sugar to stabilize. Every hormone they tested for was dangerously low, despite the fact that his pituitary gland was functioning normally. It was like something was taking half of everything his body made. Ibiki supposed that explained Ed's diminutive stature.

Ed also had quite a few tattoos. Blue circles marked the palm of his left hand, his chest and back on either side of his heart, the top of his head under his hair, and the bottom of his right foot. The metal limbs had similar marks engraved on them.

The circles were filled with intricate geometric designs, but nothing Ibiki or any of their seal experts could identify. The boy's bag, eventually turned over to his department by Uchiha Sasuke, contained note books filled with more of those strange symbols, and a looping writing they had yet to decipher. He didn't know if it was code, or a new language.

And to top it all off, both Maito Gai and Uchiha Sasuke had reported the mysterious teenager had broken free of the Mangekyo Sharingan, the attack Itachi used to take out Kakashi. If the boy ever woke up, acquiring that counter was their first priority. 

When an aid radioed him about trouble at the hospital, he smiled.

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Ed blinked and tried not to gag on the tube down his throat. His eyes were gummy and his hair was stuck to his sweaty forehead. He went to push it away, but nothing happened. He looked over and gurgled a few dozen curses around the tube. His right arm was gone.

His left hand had been strapped down and his remaining arm was stuck full of I.V.s. He twisted and wiggled and finally pulled it free. He pulled the tube out, and coughed. A machine started beeping plaintively, and he rolled over and pushed buttons on it until it stopped.

He stopped for a second and focused on his breathing. He was obviously in a hospital, but he couldn't remember how he got there. Why was he in a hospital? He pulled open the front of his hospital gown, and saw along but faint scar just to the right of his sternum. 

"Oh yeah. Got stabbed," he muttered.

It had healed well. He wondered if he had been out a long time, or if they just had really good doctors. He remembered hearing that ninja could do healing jutsu instead of killing jutsu if they felt like it. His back didn't hurt much either. He supposed that stab wound had been healed as well. He felt dead tired, but he still needed to go. He used his teeth to pull the I.V.s out of his arm and then removed the rest of the invasive devices. He shook as he got out of the bed, but they hadn't taken his automail leg off, and that one held him up alright. 

The room was pretty simple aside from the medical equipment; a chair, a bed side table with a vase containing a wilted flower (how cheerful!) and a clip board rack against the wall. And since the furniture he saw was stamped with "Property of Konoha Hospital", he was developing suspicions about where he was. He supposed ending up in their hospital meant the ninja on Naruto's side had won.

He hobbled over to the rack and read through his charts. He knew all the characters in the local language, but what was written didn't mean anything to him. Except for the date; he'd been laid up in this place for two weeks. He made a face and put the chart back. There was only one door leading out of the room, and no bathroom.

Ed hobbled back to the bed. He looked at his palm, frowning. He'd been forced to get the damn tattoo as part of his "human sacrifice" conditioning, but he'd learned how to make it do things beyond its original design. The alchemy he could perform was very limited, but it was better than nothing. He just had to be a lot more careful with the energy conduction. He'd just as soon _**not**_ accidentally set the other ones off and get sucked back into the void. 

He pressed his hand to the sheets and concentrated. The transmutation circle on his palm glowed. There was a flash of light and then the cotton reformed into a dark shirt and pants. They were very simple garments, but his back up array was pretty simple and he was having trouble staying focused. Ed stumbled and struggled into them, but at least without the hospital gown he stood a better chance of sneaking out. After he'd found a bathroom and his arm anyway.

He waited by the door for a moment, and then opened it. There were a few people walking up and down the hall outside, and he picked a direction and started walking too. There was a bathroom at the end of the hall and he managed to wash some of the crud off his face and take care of a few other problems. He still worried that he smelled like B.O. and morning breath, but he wasn't going to add a shower and a tooth brush to his search list. He winced, realizing he'd lost his bag as well. He supposed he could reproduce the theories he'd been jotting down in his books, but his State Alchemist's watch…

That stupid watch meant so many things to him, good and bad. Half the time he wanted to destroy it, the other half he feared loosing the only real memento of his home, aside from his automail. He gritted his teeth. Maybe it would turn up again. Maybe the nurses, or whoever, had a crate somewhere with a box labeled "Ed's stuff" and he could just pick it up.

"Yeah, right," he muttered to himself.

He wandered the hospital, looking into different rooms, but none of them appeared to be 'arm storage'. Ed managed to avoid the nurses' notice for the most part. They seemed pretty busy, and most of the rooms were occupied. He'd heard something about a big battle in the military city of Fire country. He guessed they were still licking their wounds after their fight. He was starting to get rather tired and was considering just sitting down somewhere for a few days, when he saw the green-bowl-cut-ballerina go around a corner at the far end of a hall, on crutches.

"Hey! Wait up!" Ed called, hurrying after him.

The guy stopped and turned back; only it wasn't the guy. It was some kid in the exact same outfit, with the same hair cut. Ed suppressed a lot of horror.

"What?" the kid asked, his eyes going to Ed's empty right sleeve and then to his face.

"Sorry," Ed said, leaning against the wall for a second. "I thought you were someone else. Don't suppose you've seen somebody dressed exactly like you but taller walking around?"

"Do you mean Gai-sensei?" the kid asked.

"I don't know," Ed said. "Didn't really catch his name. Didn't really catch anyone's name, except for Naruto, and some other kid, maybe he was called Saki? That's probably not right."

The green kid just kept staring at him.

"Uh…anyway, do you happen to know where they keep the arms and things they take off of patients? I sort of need mine back." Ed said.

The kid looked at the empty sleeve again.

"A prosthetic arm," Ed said, before the kid tried to break the news to him. "They took if off of me, I guess when they operated, but I need it back."

"Perhaps we should ask a nurse?" the kid suggested.

"Blah!" Ed said. "They'll probably just try to make me go back to my room."

The boy nodded sympathetically. "Perhaps, but I don't think you'll be able to find it otherwise. The head nurse's station is this way. I am Rock Lee, by the way."

"I'm Edward."

On their way to the nurse's station, Lee noticed Ed's left foot, as he hadn't bothered to transmute shoes. 

"Is that leg…prosthetic also?" Lee asked.

"Yeah," Ed said, but provided no more information.

It took them three minutes to get to the nurses' station, and three seconds for Ed to get into a shouting match with the nurse on duty.

"Well how would you like it if I just pulled off one of your arms while you were out of it?" Ed said.

"Sir, you need to go back to bed-"

"No. I need my arm and I need my bill. I'm not going to hang around a 'hospital' that scavenges parts."

"Sir! No one is scavenging! Please keep your voice down."

"My voice doesn't get anymore down! Where's my arm?"

"Sir, I'm calling the ANBU!"

"What the hell are ANBU?" Ed asked Lee.

The boy looked rather embarrassed. "They're the police force in Konoha."

"Good!" Ed declared. "Call them. I want to file a complaint about arm theft!"

Ed and the nurse glared at each other as she hit a red button. Ed wondered if he should have called the nurse's bluff. There were a lot of situations where people would give you what you wanted just to get you to leave. But there were equally many situations where they'd have you killed for being annoying. Lee shifted awkwardly, but he seemed more embarrassed than worried.

"Thanks for the directions," Ed said to him. "You might want to move along if you have things to do."

"I will stay," Lee said.

They waited another five minutes before a wind whipped through the hall and a flurry of leaves suddenly turned into a big burly guy with a couple of scars across his face and a bandanna covering his head. He had on a trench coat and one of those leaf head bands, which lead Ed to believe this guy was in charge of more than just hospital security. Of course Ed wasn't going to be anymore respectful because of that.

"Is there a problem?" the bandanna man asked.

"Yeah," Ed said. "I'm pretty sure I came in here with two arms. I'd like to leave with two."

"I don't think you're going anywhere yet, boy," the man said.

Ed saw Lee and the nurse were shaking now. Ed couldn't figure out why. Maybe this guy was some kind of famous badass, but Izumi was a hundred times scarier than this putz.

"I've got no reason to hang around a crappy hospital," Ed said.

"I could give you one," the bandanna man said, looming.

The nurse looked ready to piss herself, and Lee's crutch was rattling against the floor. Ed sighed.

"Know what?" Ed said. "The whole scary glare thing is wasted on me, so make your point or tell her to give me back my arm. It shouldn't be too hard to find. It's the same size as this one but made out of metal," Ed finished, waving his left had. "You know, met-al?"

The guy glared harder, and a vein stood out on his temple. The nurse passed out. Lee caught her before she hit the ground, and the boy gave Ed a look that said "for the love of God shut up!"

Ed of course did not take the hint. "Great job," he said to the bandanna man. "You made the nurse faint. I'll applauded as soon as someone gets me my F#$king right arm!"

"Completely UN-phased by killing intent," the bandanna man said. "I guess that explains some of it."

"Some of what?" Ed asked. "And what does it have to do with my arm?"

"Nothing. Follow me. If you're well enough to walk around, you're well enough for interrogation."

Ed rolled his eyes. "Great."

The bandanna man marched away and Ed followed after with a backwards wave at Lee, who was still trying to bring the nurse around. 

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**Author'sNote**: For those of you wondering about the tattoos and everything, I'm using the story line from the FMAManga, and trying to build off the end of that. Since that series hasn't ended, I am making some stuff up. Most of it will probably end up AU, but think ifI keep everyone in character it should work out. Anyway let me know what you think. The Review button is down and to the left!


	5. Chapter 5

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 5**

Rock Lee knew he was a bit self-centered. It was not that he did not care about other people. In fact, he found sympathetic figures in almost everyone he met. But most of his time was spent focusing on himself, on his training and conditioning, on hours of practice from dawn until dusk and night training, too, if that was available. He rarely had time to talk with other people, or even think about them.

But now he couldn't get Edward out of his head. That empty sleeve and the metal foot with toes carved in it, trying to make it look real, but it never would be. Lee swallowed as he made his way back to the apartment he shared with Master Gai.

_That could've been me. That might still be me,_ he thought.

Lee recalled his battle with Gaara of the Sand in bold detail…well, up until the point his arm and leg were crushed. Gai and Tenten told him he'd gotten up and tried to fight again, though he could not remember that part. He remembered Gaara's hateful eyes and the killing intent and the mad glee in his face as he crippled him. That wasn't what gave him nightmares. What he really remembered was coming to for a few moments in the hospital, and hearing a med nin say they would probably have to amputate. Even now he was more afraid of the medics than he was of the sociopath sand nin. Gaara just wanted to kill him. The med nin wanted him to be a civilian.

He opened the door of the apartment, and barely suppressed a flinch as Gai appeared in front of him.

"Lee! My most hard-working student! What good news from the healers?" Gai shouted.

"I…I am sorry master. I missed my appointment."

"What happened? Were you attacked? Were there missing nin in your way? What happened, my apprentice?!"

"I went to the hospital…" Lee said, looking down. "I went…but I forgot…there was someone there looking for you. His arm was gone…and his leg, it was fake…"

"Ah! Was this by any chance a small blond teenage boy who burns with the fire of youth and goes by the name of Edward?" Gai asked.

Lee nodded.

"But why did this cause you to miss your appointment, my most stalwart student?" Gai asked.

"Morino Ibiki came to collect him, after Edward demanded the hospital staff return his prosthetic arm to him," Lee said.

"The head of Torture and Interrogation himself?" Gai asked.

Lee nodded again. "Edward was very rude. He kept provoking Ibiki, as if he did not care if he killed him!"

"My adorable and compassionate student! Do not fear!" Gai gushed. "Though Ibiki is very intimidating, I doubt he would do Edward harm. That boy rendered aid to members of our village."

_It isn't that. He's like me. He's crippled and slow. What if he doesn't care anymore? What if he's losing hope like me?_ Lee thought these things, but he didn't say them out loud. Master Gai would be upset if he didn't keep a positive attitude.

"Don't worry, Lee!" Gai said. "I will write a note to Ibiki reminding him of Edward's noble nature! He will not come to grief!"

Lee just nodded stiffly. His teacher took off in a green blur. Lee looked around the empty apartment for a moment, and then went back outside. Leaning heavily on his crutches, he hobbled towards the training grounds.

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_Subject has extreme issues with authority figures…_

Ibiki looked over his notes as he and the rest of his team watched the subject through a closed-circuit camera. Goro, Anko, and Masao sat or slouched, looking at assorted monitors. They weren't his best team, but he couldn't afford to pull too many people away from other projects. He probably wouldn't need his best, anyway. They weren't going straight to the wet work in this situation, since at this point the teenager was neither an enemy nin, nor a direct threat to the stability of the country. They'd handle it all with psychological pressure for now. Well, mostly psychological. He really wanted to shut that boy's mouth for him

Ibiki flipped through to his page of objectives, reading what the village council thought it needed to know: name, birthplace, affiliations, usefulness to the Village, skill set, source of resistance to the sharingan, relationship to the demon vessel…

Some of the council had already decided they didn't like the teenager, simply because Uzumaki Naruto had found him first. Of course, others were on the opposite side of the fence.

Maito Gai had sent Ibiki a note saying something about how the boy "having obviously suffered greatly for the benefit of a Konoha shinobi, should be spared further dampening to the fires of his youth." The note had gone on for three more paragraphs about fires, tsunamis, and something that may or may not have been a haiku about a protein-rich diet. Ibiki interpreted the note as a request to go easy on the kid.

They had left Elric in a room by himself to sweat for a bit, but it wasn't working. After being left alone for twenty minutes, the boy got up from his seat, walked around the table, and tried to pull the interrogator's chair loose. It was bolted to the floor, though, so he didn't succeed. Finally he gave up on that, and climbed up on the table. He lay down, stretched out, tucked his arm under his head, and started snoring.

"He's still taking a goddamn nap," Anko said when Ibiki looked up from his files.

"I can see that."

The boy either had no idea where he was and who they were, or he did not care.

_Suicidal tendencies?_ Ibiki wrote.

"So who's going to play good cop?" Anko asked.

"Not you," Masao said.

"You think I can't do it?" Anko challenged. "I can be nice if I feel like it."

"Don't you have to leave for a mission in an hour?" Masao asked.

"You think this'll take more than an hour?" she asked.

"Masao, get in there," Ibiki ordered. "Start with the standard form. Don't use any genjutsu until I tell you."

"Yes, sir," the chunin said, adjusting his earpiece and saluting before ducking out of the monitoring room.

--

* * *

A minute later he walked into the interrogation room with a clipboard under his arm. The sound of the door opening and closing didn't wake the teenager sleeping on the table. Nor did calling out "wake up" in a moderate and then a loud voice. Whacking the one-armed boy with the clipboard finally brought him back to muzzy consciousness. The boy took his time sitting up, rubbing his face and eventually climbing off the table.

"Can I go yet?" the teenager asked.

"What?" Masao asked.

"Can I leave?"

"You haven't answered any of our questions yet," Masao said.

"So ask the questions already," he demanded sullenly.

"Name?"

"Edward Elric."

"Age?"

"Eighteen."

"Really?"

"What'd'ya mean 'really'?"

Masao shrugged. "I'd have thought thirteen."

"Oh? And why is that?" Ed ground out between clenched teeth.

"No reason," he said. "Place of birth?"

"Tanzuka."

"You aren't on the register for that town."

"My father was too lazy to fill out the form."

Ibiki stared intently at the security monitor. It was focused close up on the subject's face. He'd seen a bit of honesty in that last statement. He supposed that could have something to do with the problem with authority, as well. He added that to his notes.

_Father issues…_

"Why were you carrying a fake I.D.?" Masao asked.

"Why's it fake?"

"We had it checked out."

"You have my wallet? What about the rest of my stuff?" Ed asked.

"A bag of yours was retrieved. I'm sure you'll get it back when all of this is cleared up."

"What about my arm?" Ed asked.

"I'm not certain what's going on with that. You'll probably have to take that up with the hospital staff. Have you left fire country to visit any other nations within the past five years?"

"No."

The chunin ran through the other five pages of pointless questions. Ibiki was certain every word of response was a lie, but he perked up when the Akatsuki incident was finally mentioned. Ed's version of events didn't come close to matching the statements he'd received from Gai and the Uchiha brat.

"Let me get this straight," Masao said. "You started a fight with 2 **_S-class_** missing nin, because they were 'jerks' and tried to cut the line for Dango?"

Ed nodded. "And they were dressed like idiots. It looked like they were wearing shower curtains. I had to say something."

--

* * *

Goro flinched as Anko burst out laughing.

"Can I keep him?" she asked.

Ibiki didn't even bother to glare. It was rather curious that the boy, who obviously knew he was in trouble, wasn't pointing out the favor he'd done for Konoha with every finger he had. He was trying to make it look like a clash of egos, instead of a fight to protect Naruto. He also left out mentioning the strange non-jutsu he'd used, and he claimed to have escaped the Mangekyo Sharingan by blinking.

"hmmmmmmmmmmmmm," Ibiki said.

"What?" Goro prompted.

"He doesn't want us to think he and Naruto are friends," Ibiki said.

Goro snorted. "Who'd admit to being friends with the demon brat, anyway?"

"He doesn't know about the demon," Ibiki said. "He doesn't want to give us a hostage."

"Or maybe he's trying to sound tough," Anko said.

Ibiki tapped his radio. "Try a low-level genjutsu."

Masao nodded at one of the cameras. The interrogator didn't even bother to hide the signs he was weaving. The subject was picking at a loose thread on his empty right sleeve. Masao completed the seals.

Nothing happened.

It wasn't the most mind-bending genjutsu, true, but when it worked, it worked right away. The 'long time old friend' jutsu altered the victim's perception, making the caster seem familiar and trustworthy. It also made the victim feel like they had some bit of news to pass along. True, most ninja could shrug off the altered perception easily enough, but Edward Elric didn't even bother with a shrug. He just went on picking at the sleeve.

"So….heard anything interesting lately?" Masao tried prompting.

"No," the teenage said flatly. "You asked all your dumb questions. Can I go now?"

"Um, no," Masao said.

Masao wove the seals again, but with no more result. Ibiki could feel the pulse of chakra in the observation room as he put way too much power into it. Edward watched the ninja with purposeful disinterest, and did not react when the jutsu washed over him, though it should've hit him like a wet towel in the face.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ed asked.

"Oh, nothing," Masao said. "I don't suppose you feel like telling the truth now?"

"I don't suppose you feel like getting me my arm now?" the teenager retorted.

Ibiki tapped his radio. "Try 'tree bind'," he ordered.

Masao flashed through the seals. This time Ed reacted, but he only brushed at his face, as if a cobweb had touched him.

"You know, that's getting annoying," Ed said.

"Yeah, sorry," Masao said, as he started another series of seals.

Ibiki recognized them as 'burning death in darkness'. If it worked, the boy would be shrieking in agony on the floor. Instead, he brushed at his face again.

"If you aren't going to ask any more questions, I'm going back to sleep," Ed said.

--

* * *

The interrogation team sat watching the monitors as their subject resumed his nap.

"I don't understand," Masao said. "I linked the illusion to his chakra. That's the first thing I did, but it just falls off. It's like when I was a genin and couldn't get the basic stuff to work."

"Why didn't 'the basic stuff work' when you were a genin?" Ibiki asked.

"Because I left out details. I would forget to put bark on the trees or I would forget some other little thing that would make the illusion too easy to pick apart."

"Try casting one on Goro," Anko suggested.

Masao did, and Goro fell to the floor thrashing and shrieking about leeches.

"The kid seems to be genjutsu-proof," Anko said.

"Itachi held him in one for a bit," Masao said. "For a bit, anyway."

Goro got off the floor, glaring. "If genjutsu won't work, we'll have to use drugs or torture."

"Or both," Anko said.

"We aren't at that stage yet," Ibiki said quietly.

"Ooooh," Anko said. "Bad Cop."

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The medical reports had given him some idea of the boy's psyche; the healed fractures in his skeleton said he was a brawler and probably the underdog in every fight. Ibiki could see that confirmed in the flesh, too, as the interrogator walked into the room and closed the door. The back of Edward Elric's knuckles were scarred, and his fingers too, probably split punching someone in the teeth. There were a few more even lines on the boy's bare arm that might've come from torture, or were perhaps self-inflicted. At the moment he wouldn't speculate.

He looked the boy in the eye, and the boy glared back un-cowed.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Ed growled.

"You're wasting my time," Ibiki said, flooding the room with killing intent. There was no reaction.

"You're wasting your own time," Ed said. "Give me back my arm and we won't have to see each other ever again."

"You've been lying to us," Ibiki said.

"So?"

"That's illegal. It threatens the security of our nation."

"So do missing nin, but you don't seem to be doing much about them," Ed drawled.

"You survived a fight with such nin, when several of our own shinobi did not. That means you are just as much of a threat."

"What do you mean?" the teenager asked, trying to sound uninterested, but there was tension around his eyes, and little twitches in his fingers as he fought the urge to clench them.

"Uchiha Sasuke died of his injuries a few days after returning to the village. Uzumaki Naruto was captured by the missing nin who you fought with. His body was recovered a few days later."

The teenager looked particularly horrified when Ibiki told him Naruto was dead. Ed gritted his teeth and the expression faded.

"You're lying, too," Ed said slowly. "So I don't see why you had such a fit about me doing the same."

"Why do you say I'm lying?" Ibiki asked.

"Because you are."

"Don't try and play games in here, Edward. You will lose."

The boy rolled his eyes.

Ibiki backhanded him across the face.

The blow probably wouldn't have fazed a ninja, but it sent the small teenager tumbling out of his chair. Ed was on his feet again with his arm raised in a guard more quickly than Ibiki would have thought possible, but he wasn't near fast enough to fend off a ninja.

Ibiki darted forward and struck Ed in the center of the chest. The boy was lifted off his feet by the force of the blow and flung back into the wall. Before he could slide back down to the floor, Ibiki caught him and pinned him to the wall with a forearm across his chest, keeping him from catching the breath that had been knocked out of him.

Ed tried to kick him, but Ibiki just leaned on him, trapping his legs against the wall. The teenager used his free arm to try to push Ibiki away, but he wasn't strong enough.

Ibiki considered whether or not the boy was likely to try to bite him, but decided he wasn't. He could see a little sliver of fear in the boy's eyes now, the kind any animal gets when it can't breathe, but Ed didn't look like he was going to panic and do something undignified. Ibiki leaned in and spoke very quietly.

"This is the situation you are in, Edward. If I decide you are a threat to the village, you will be executed and turned over to the research department. If you are not a threat, you will be allowed out of here. If I can't make up my mind, you will be drugged into a coma, and turned over to the research department until I have more leisure time to deal with you."

The teenager glared.

"Do you understand that, Edward?"

He didn't respond, beyond his continued struggles to breathe.

"I decide what to do with you based on the information I obtain. If I think burning you will get me the information I want, you will be burned. If I think holding your head under water will get answers, you will get wet. If I decide stabbing you with knives or needles, or any other form of unpleasant penetration will get the truth out of you, you will bleed. Do you understand, Edward?"

The glaring continued.

"Maybe you don't believe me?" Ibiki said. "Would you like a tour of our facilities? You could become familiar with our methods. We have a spy from Stone two floors down. He's very close to breaking. He gave us some trouble at the beginning, but now he just sobs and shakes."

"You realize…you're a…sick… freak…right?" the teenager gasped.

"That's why they gave me this job," Ibiki answered.

The boy continued to glare and pull at the arm pinning him to the wall. Ibiki leaned in, forcing the last of the air out of the boy's lungs. His face was turning red and his eyes were bugging out, but he still scowled defiantly.

"Tell me that you understand your position, and you can have air again, Edward."

Ibiki assumed this confrontation would end one of two ways; either Ed would pass out from the lack of oxygen, or he would respond to Ibiki's question. Ibiki had not foreseen the teenager grabbing onto the sleeve of his trench coat. Ibiki did not expect his coat to fall apart in ashy flakes and sparks of purple light. He dropped Ed and stepped back. The boy landed on the floor, gasping and choking. Ibiki scowled at his now-bare arms. More of his scars were exposed.

"That wasn't very smart, Edward. I was fond of that coat," Ibiki said.

Ed glared. "Next time it will be your arm, you bastard!" he said, still gasping.

Ibiki watched the boy as he tried to get up on wobbly legs, kicking up little piles of coat-ash.

"Why wasn't it my arm this time, Edward?" Ibiki asked.

Ed didn't answer, he only glared.

It was a rather important question. Why simply startle when you could cripple or kill, especially if you were being attacked at the time? Perhaps the boy understood that if he injured Ibiki, other leaf nin would come in and avenge him. Or perhaps all he could do was melt cloth. Gai had mentioned something about Itachi losing his cloak while fighting Ed, though he hadn't mentioned the manner of its destruction. Ibiki took a step towards the boy, and Ed brought up his arm defensively.

"Why didn't you destroy my arm, Edward?" Ibiki asked. "Are you afraid of blood?"

The boy snorted. "Not everyone gets off on splattering other human beings," he said. "But you aren't getting any more warnings."

"I won't need them," Ibiki said.

The boy never saw the blow coming.

Even as Ed slumped unconscious to the floor, Anko and the rest of the team arrived.

"Any idea what he just did?" Masao asked.

"No," Ibiki said. "But he'll be in full restraints for the next interrogation."

"Yeah," Anko snorted. "Next time you might lose your pants too."

Ibiki did not look amused.

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**Author's note**: Next chapter: the Alchemist Strikes Back!


	6. Chapter 6

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 6**

**The Next Day…**

Sasuke ran through the kata again, but he was slowing. Training on his own made it easier to work himself to his limits, but there was only so much he could do with the same material. He stopped by the hospital every morning to check on his sensei, but the man remained in a coma, as he had been for two weeks. Sasuke wondered if he should petition to be moved to a new team, since having the copy nin as his instructor was the only reason he hadn't done so before. Maybe he could arrange a temporary transfer….as long as he could avoid Maito Gai. That nutcase had been turning up every few days to offer help with conditioning until Kakashi awoke. Sasuke had deflected the green maniac toward Sakura, though he didn't know if she took the jonin up on his offer. She'd certainly been hanging around him less.

He scowled as something pink appeared in his peripheral vision. If he were superstitious, he'd be convinced he had jinxed himself. He finished another run through the kata, and turned to look at his annoying teammate.

"I ran into Lee," Sakura began.

He turned away and started the kata again.

She huffed. "I RAN INTO LEE!" she shouted, as if he didn't hear instead of didn't care.

"HE MET THAT KID WHO GAI BROUGHT TO THE HOSPITAL-"

She gasped as Sasuke appeared in front of her.

"He's awake?" he demanded.

"Yeah, apparently his arm had to be amputated or something and he went crazy and started a fight," she said.

"Is he still at the hospital?" Sasuke asked.

"No, Morino Ibiki--you remember, the creepy exam proctor?--he dragged him off to the interrogation department."

Sasuke frowned. He hadn't exactly mentioned threatening to cut the blond teenager's throat in the report he'd filed. If the crippled teenager complained, it could cause problems. But most importantly he needed to know how the cripple had gotten loose from Itachi's genjutsu.

"Any idea when he'll be released?" Sasuke asked.

"No," she said. "But…but I'm sure I could find out. Ino's dad works with that department. I guess I could ask her…. But if she comes to tell you herself, it's only because I told her you wanted to know. And if she says anything else, she's lying!"

He nodded. Sakura stood watching him for a moment and her face started to fall. For a moment he wondered what she was still doing there.

"Thanks, Sakura," he muttered, just short of inaudibly.

She heard him, though, and took off running with a big smile on her face.

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_The guards that survived were too busy running to bother shooting them. The reaction was building. You didn't have to be an alchemist to see that._

_ He felt Al's hands under his armpits, pulling him upright. He staggered and looked around._

_ "Big brother? Can you hear me? Are you hurt?"_

_ Ed looked around, eyes tracing the path of the reaction through the arrays. It didn't matter that Al had pulled him out. The other human sacrifices must still be in place. The rest of the rebel group must've failed. But he'd felt…with all those lives flying through him…with the Gate wide open…he thought he could see… _

_ "Ed, can you hear me?" Al said, shaking him. "Ed, we have to get out of here!"_

_ "We can't," he said. His voice sounded faint even to him._

_ "We can't stay. We'll be consumed. We have to get away from the array!"_

_"I think I can short-circuit it."_

_ "Big Brother, it's too late. We have to run. We have to get everybody to run!"_

_ "They'll never make it. We're twenty miles from the edge of the array. Nobody will make it."_

_ "But we don't have time to alter the array, either!"_

_ "Not from here. I think I can do it from inside. If I open the Gate-"_

He woke up jerking against straps.

Ed gulped. He wanted to wipe his eyes, but couldn't. He hadn't had that nightmare in a while, not in months. It wasn't that he wanted to forget about it, but after months of fruitless searching for a way back home, or at least a route he could morally consider using, he'd decided not to think about it for a while. There was no guarantee that Amestris was even there to return to. He focused on the immediate problem, the straps.

They were much heavier than the ones from the hospital. He tried to rotate his hand enough to touch the straps of the table, or gurney, or whatever it was he was tied to, but he couldn't move his hand at all. He rocked back and forth, and whatever he was tied to wobbled. He supposed if he could tip sideways onto the floor, he could probably transmute something from that to cut himself free. He kept rocking and it seemed like the gurney was about to tip, when a hand slammed down right next to his head, putting an end to his plan to fall on the floor.

The gurney settled and he looked up at the hand's owner. She had purple hair held back with a clip and wore a trench coat over a shirt that had some serious thread-count issues. He didn't get a very military impression from her. She leaned over him and he could see right up her nose.

"Someone's awake!" the woman said with aggressive cheerfulness.

"Figured it out, hu? You must be a master of deduction," Ed muttered.

She laughed in a loud, harsh voice that reminded him of his sensei, Izumi Curtis. Then she slapped the side of his face, and he was reminded even more of his teacher. The woman was still laughing to herself, so Ed supposed she thought the slap hadn't hurt as much as it did. Of course, considering where he was, she might not be playing around. Either way he wasn't going to act like a wimp and complain.

"I'm Anko," she said as she walked out of his range of vision. "We weren't introduced yesterday, since Ibiki knocked you out, and it's kind of pointless to interrogate someone who's unconscious."

"I've got nothing to say to you," Ed said.

"Ehhhh, I'm sure we'll think of something to talk about," she said. "Like your health. The Med nins were pitching a fit cause we haven't fed you. Also they sent you a bunch of pills," she said, dropping a clear plastic bag on his chest. He could just barely move his head enough to see them. There was a rainbow assortment of pills, and some of them were stamped with numbers.

"They say what these are for?" he asked.

"Nope," she said cheerfully.

"They happen to send over my arm?"

"No," Anko said. "And the answer is 'no' to the next seven or eight questions you come up with, too."

"So if I asked if I could **_not_** leave you'd let me go?" Ed asked.

"If you asked something like that, I'd have to slap you a few more times for being a wiseass."

"hmmmmmm," Ed said.

"But in the mean time, you get to eat and take a bunch of drugs," she said, pulling at something he couldn't see on the side of the table. The straps came loose. "But don't think you can make a break for it."

He sat up and his head spun. He shifted around so his feet were hanging over the side. She didn't appear to notice his hand resting on the strap that had been used to restrain it. His body blocked the light of the reaction.

He wondered how long he'd been lying there. There was no clock in the room, or anything, really, except for one door, a fluorescent light panel, a toilet with a tap over it, a black glassy bubble in the corner that was probably a camera, and the gurney he'd been strapped to.

As he finished his inspection of the room, he looked back at the woman and saw she was wearing a mini skirt and shin-guards instead of pants. If her clothing had been navy blue, her getup would have been exactly like the one Mustang was supposedly planning to institute for female soldiers if he became Fuhrer. Well, that was the bastard Colonel's running joke, anyway. He wondered if Mustang had made it. With the array backfiring the way it was, the other human sacrifices had probably fried.

"You like my outfit, kid?" Anko asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Yeah, it's great," Ed said. "I've got one just like it in my closet at home."

She leered. "I'd like to see you in that."

"It's a look I can't pull off with just one arm."

She laughed again. "I like you, kid. It'd be a shame if I had to torture you to death."

Ed just shrugged.

"You really aren't afraid, are you?" she asked.

"Afraid," Ed said. "No. I'm just tired of this shit."

She looked at him for a long moment and then sort of grunted. "Whatever. Time to eat, kid."

She knocked on the door and it opened just wide enough for a gloved hand to pass in a tray of food. She set it on the gurney next to Ed. There was a cup of milk, which he carefully avoided, a bun, and a bowl of mystery substance. He picked up the spoon and poked at the contents of the bowl. It was a gray sludge with bits of green, red, and brown in it. As he was inspecting it, Anko picked up the bag of pills and dumped a few dozen into the sludge, making it even less appetizing. But it still smelled something like food, which started his stomach growling. He scarfed down the bun in two bites, and then began picking through the sludge. It didn't taste that bad, if you just pretended you were eating unflavored toothpaste.

"Not thirsty?" she asked, picking up the cup of milk.

Ed scowled.

"Then you can watch me drink it," she said, singsong.

"I'd rather watch someone drink their own vomit," Ed said, averting his eyes as she brought the glass to her lips.

"It's just milk," she said, walking around into his field of vision again. "It's good for you."

"I've never believed that and I never will," Ed said.

"Oh come on! You must have liked milk at some point. You're a mammal, after all. That's kind of what defines the Order," she said, holding out the cup as if she were going to pour it on him. "You must've lived off this stuff for the first couple years of your life."

"I don't remember doing any such thing," he insisted, leaning away.

"So big, bad, S-Class ninja don't scare you, but dairy products do?"

"I'm not scared. I'm –Hey!"

Anko tipped the cup and Ed leapt from his seat only just in time to avoid the falling droplets. He was starting to get a very bad feeling about this woman.

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Ibiki had said the prisoner should not be left unrestrained. But Anko had no intention of letting him escape, and she sure as hell wasn't going to spoon feed him his lunch. She was glad she'd gotten back early from her mission. This kid was just too much fun.

Anko couldn't keep the grin off her face as she followed the teenager around the room. He dodged away from the milk like it was acid. She'd heard old legends about trolls or monsters that feared milk, some kind of metaphor for a mother's love or something. This was probably a phobia, though. Edward seemed human enough at every inspection. Still, there was only one way to be sure he wasn't some kind of supernatural creature. She managed to corner him by the toilet, and dumped the cup of milk over his head.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhg!" he half-shouted, half-groaned.

There was a look of total and complete disgust on his face, but he didn't melt or burst into flames. For a moment, she thought he might cry. He pushed his soaked hair out of his eyes and glared at her.

"Crazy bitch!" he shouted, and jumped at her.

She stepped back and away. He followed.

"Oh don't get all bent out of shape," she said, still grinning. "Milk is supposed to be good for your complexion."

He dropped back and down, and she thought he was going for a leg sweep, but he shot back up, right leg coming at her face. She dodged back, avoiding his foot by a comfortable margin. Still, she was a little surprised by his speed (and flexibility). Most civilians wouldn't have been able to pull off something like that right after waking up, right after being slapped around by Ibiki, right after coming out of a coma, right after fighting S-class missing ninja.

She darted around behind him, intending to kick him in the back of his supporting leg, but that leg left the ground as well and the right leg swept down through the air. He wasn't turning fast enough to hit her, but it wasn't a bad move. It was probably mid-genin level taijutsu, without any chakra to help it along. She dodged back again, wondering what he'd do next. She smirked a little when, instead of letting his feet hit the ground and righting himself for his next attack, he pushed off the ground with his left hand and sent his feet flying at her head again.

This time she dodged completely and his feet struck the wall. Unfazed by his lack of success (or gravity, apparently) he kicked off the wall and once again tried to strike her.

She decided she'd had enough fun and flipped a loop of wire around his wrist, trapping it against his side. She zipped around behind him and caught him by his trailing right ankle. He jerked to a stop and swung back towards her, his face slamming into her shin-guards.

He cursed.

"Did you really think that would get you anywhere?" she asked.

"No," Ed growled. "I just really wanted to kick you."

He illustrated the point by kicking at her with his only unrestrained limbs. Anko let go and stepped back, dropping him on his head well before his foot connected. She watched him untangle the wire, pick himself up off the floor, and slink back over to the gurney. He poked at the remains of the gruel, but it had gotten milk splashed on it, and was apparently no longer edible.

"If we gave you back your arm and let you out of here, where would you go?" Anko asked.

"I don't know," he huffed. "As far away from here as possible?"

"To another country?" she asked.

"I don't know, maybe."

"Do you even know anything about the border nations?"

Ed shrugged, pouting. "Doesn't matter, all countries are pretty much the same."

"Oh, really?" Anko asked, checking her watch. "So Fire country is the same as Rain country or Earth?"

"Yeah, everywhere is the same," Ed said. "The jerk with the biggest army and the best guns ends up on top and makes everyone else miserable trying to stay there. Life sucks and then you die. The end."

"You're kind of pessimistic, aren't you?" Anko asked. She filed the term 'guns' away for later.

"I don't know why that would be," Ed said. "With all this wonderful shit raining down on me," he said through gritted teeth, pulling his soaked shirt away from his chest.

"Things could be worse," She said.

"Yeah I could be blind or sick or old…blah blah blah. Just because you could theoretically be bigger bastards doesn't mean I should smile politely when you steal from me and try to screw me over."

Anko stalked up to the gurney and grabbed his hand. She turned it, palm up to inspect the complicated design tattooed there. He demanded she let go, but she ignored him. This was the hand that had turned Ibiki's coat to nothing in less than a second. She leaned in closer and pressed his palm to her chest.

The teenager froze for a moment, his expression completely baffled. And then he yelped.

"Let go of me, you crazy woman!" he demanded, trying to pull his arm away. He went so far as to brace his feet against her legs as he tried to pry his hand free, but it didn't do him any good. She could control her chakra. He had nothing but muscles and bones to work with. Well, there was metal too. She frowned a bit as the metal foot started to dig in, but she had a point to make.

"Let go!" he demanded again.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" she asked. "Are you going to kill me? You told Ibiki 'no more warnings'--was that all just big talk?"

"You nut job!" he growled. "You want to die or something?"

"Maybe I do," she said. "Go ahead. Blow me away."

"You know what?" Ed said. "You're crazy, and they're crazy for letting you carry around sharp objects. Screw it!" he declared, turning on the gurney so he was facing away from her. "You'll have to let go eventually."

He sat there attempting to ignore her. She wondered if Ibiki was watching this on the camera. He hadn't yelled at her through her radio. Maybe he didn't think the kid had it in him, either. She decided he probably wasn't watching. He'd at least be calling her a reckless idiot if he was.

"What do you think will happen to you if you do get out of here?" she asked in a low voice, still holding his hand over her heart. "You think the other hidden villages won't come after you. You think Itachi Uchiha won't come back? You need our protection a lot more than we need your attitude."

"I didn't need you before. I don't need you now."

"Before, you were beneath everyone's notice."

"Who are you calling short, you mentally unbalanced skank?!" he shouted, twisting to face her and nearly falling off the gurney. "You demented, psychotic-

She dragged him the rest of the way off and shoved him against the wall, never releasing his hand. She leaned on him to keep him from moving away. He just kept yelling. Most men would've been completely distracted by this, but he seemed to be so focused on glaring and calling her crazy that he didn't even notice. She just waited for him to run out of steam.

When he paused to catch his breath he finally noticed their faces were only a few inches apart and that other parts were much closer. He appeared more than a little confused and looked around as if hoping to notice a previously neglected escape route. When none appeared, he looked back at her.

"Do I have your attention?" she asked.

He gulped and then nodded.

"I don't know what kind of dream world you've been living in, but in the Elemental countries, the Hidden Villages will do anything to maintain power, and killing is the least of it. Maybe you are willing to live and let live, but no one else is. You helped out one of ours and you got dragged into this. Sorry, but there is no way out now. You either work with us, or you get taken out of the game permanently. I suggest you quit being a brat and give this some serious thought."

"I haven't been 'living in a dream world'," Ed said, letting his anger overcome the awkwardness. "You don't get sick of death and carnage from causing too little of it. I've killed more people than you'll ever meet. There's enough blood on me to drown everyone in your whole damn village. Go ahead and _take me out of_ **_The Game_**! I'll never work for people like you again!"

"People like me?" she asked quietly. "Who did you work for before? Stone? Cloud?"

"Nobody," he replied sullenly. He turned his face away from her and stared at the wall.

She wondered if she should try to push him further. If she made him angry again she might get a few more clues. Of course, she might just push him to the point where he would be willing to blow her up or whatever it was those strange arrays on his hand did to organic material.

She sighed. The momentum of the conversation was gone. She tapped the side of his neck and he slumped against her. She took the tray off the gurney and strapped the unconscious prisoner back in place. She thought he might've done something to the straps, but they didn't give at all when she pulled on them. She sighed and went to make her report. If she had a few weeks to work on him, she could probably get him to spill his guts, but Ibiki wanted this done fast. They'd probably start the mind-bending drugs in the morning.

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**The Next Day…**

Masao was on his way to Ibiki's office for the day's assignments when his radio buzzed. He'd had a bad feeling when he woke up that morning. He checked the frequency and saw it was the emergency line, proving that everything was wrong with the world. He opened the channel.

"What do you need?" he asked.

"The camera went out it cell 4csub8," the chunin in the monitoring room announced.

Masao rushed to cell block 4, and two patrolling ANBU fell in with him. The cell without a camera contained Edward Elric. They hadn't gone more than ten feet before realizing something was very wrong with the entire cell block.

"There used to be a door here, right?" Masao asked.

The two ANBU nodded.

All three tried to dispel the genjutsu, but nothing happened. The corridors remained a stretch of blank wall, leading nowhere.

"Ibiki is gonna be pissed," Masao said.

The ANBU nodded.

"Station one," Masao said, calling the monitoring room back. "Any idea where the doors went?"

"That's not an illusion?" the chunin asked.

"Negative," Masao said, even as the ANBU felt around for hidden handles.

"There was blue light coming from the walls, and then the doors were gone," the chunin said. "It happened about thirty seconds after the camera went out. I already released knockout gas into every cell in that block," he added.

"Are the cameras in the other cells still working?"

"Yes, sir," he said. "No activity in any other cells or corridors."

Most shinobi could hold their breath for a very long time, but the chakra seals in the prison walls kept them from using jutsu to filter the air or increase their own lung capacity. Masao and the ANBU dug their masks out of their equipment pouches and put them on, and then went to work breaking through the walls where the doors used to be. It took them five minutes to get to the right part of the building. All the while the security frequency was buzzing with confused ninja as their doors disappeared. The reaction seemed to be spreading.

"Anything on the cameras?" he asked the monitoring office.

"Nothing new since that one blacked out," the chunin said.

Masao used measured steps to figure out where the door to 4csub8 had been. He broke through the wall with a doton jutsu. The cell was empty. It looked perfectly intact, other than the wall he'd just knocked down to get in. There was no evidence someone had tunneled in or out, or done anything else, for that matter. He dispelled for genjutsu just in case. Nothing changed.

"There's nobody in here," Masao reported.

"Hold position and wait for the trackers," Ibiki's voice ordered over the radio.

Masao winced a little. This was going to go badly, he could feel it. He considered reminding them that Anko had been the last one to secure the prisoner, but nobody liked a narc. He shifted, and even the ANBU in the hall were getting antsy. It must be taking the tracker team forever to break through all the walls. He opened a channel to ask the monitoring office how much longer when a sharp trilling bit into his eardrum.

It was a general seismic alert.

Someone was tunneling under the interrogation building.

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The building was ominous by design, without windows and sunk low in the ground. There was no ordinance preventing vendors from setting up stands on the street in front of it, but no one did.

Sasuke stood on the opposite side of the street, wondering what he should do. Sakura told him they weren't releasing Edward Elric anytime soon. Sasuke supposed he could just walk in there and demand to speak to the prisoner. They could just as easily kick him right back out. He had no authority. He had no favors to call in. He didn't even have rank to pull. If he had made chunin…

He clenched his fists. He wasn't strong enough and he wasn't going to get what he needed with no one training him and no one telling him anything.

If Kakashi couldn't beat Itachi, what could he teach Sasuke?

A sour feeling was crawling up out of his stomach and the muscles in his neck and shoulder spasmed as the curse mark stirred. He was about to return to the training area, to practice Fire jutsu until he was standing in a field of ashes when he saw the blue light.

The foundation of the interrogation department was crawling with blue sparks. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and waited, muscles trembling. He knew that light. It was part of Edward's not-Jutsu.

Sasuke expected a wall to burst open, or the doors to explode outward. A slight rumble changed to an earthquake and the ground beneath him jerked and slid, like a rug being pulled from under his feet.

He didn't fall, but it was a graceless stumble that kept him upright. He didn't miss the reaction. His eyes wouldn't let him, but by the time his feet were planted and stable again, it was over. The Interrogation department had sunk completely into the ground.

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**Author's note: **Sorry this update took forever. It just wasn't a writing month for me. The next one should be out much sooner. Feel free to review.

**Request for Fact Checking: **I've never seen trucks, planes, or guns in the Manga, does anybody know if these things don't exist in the Naruto verse? If you do know please let me know by review or P.M. Thanks!


	7. Chapter 7

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 7**

"Casualties?" Ibiki asked, brushing flakes of plaster off his new coat. It didn't really look new anymore. He hadn't performed any of the earth jutsu to reconnect them to the surface, but the ANBU who did hadn't been shy about spraying bystanders with dirt.

"None, sir," the ANBU in the Rhino mask said.

"None?" Ibiki asked.

"None worth mentioning, sir," Rhino said. "Goro broke two fingers trying to 'see through' the genjutsu that had hidden the doors-"

"But no one was crushed or smothered?"

"No, sir. Even the prisoners are fine. Well, as fine as they were before the interrogation department…moved."

"Any sign of Elric?" Ibiki asked.

"We found a tunnel from his cell to the lowest level. He'd covered over the place he went through the floor, but it was hollow underneath. You could hear when you walked on it. Cat went down the tunnel he'd made. She was the only one small enough to fit. It dead-ended at the bottom of the building. We've radioed all other patrols to keep an ear out for seismic activity. We have plenty of practice hunting Stone nin. We'll have him soon, sir."

Ibiki nodded and waved the ANBU away, back to patrolling. He walked through the pitch-dark halls, half listening to the radio chatter as the seals around special prisoners were checked, and the soundness of the buildings' infrastructure was inspected. The roof was certainly never intended to support a thirty-foot column of soil. The news was surprisingly good. Aside from severed gas, sewer, and electrical lines, the building was in good shape. Ibiki doubted they'd be able to convince Elric to raise it again for them.

Was moving the building simply a cover for a much smaller tunneling project? And if the boy could move thousands of tons of earth, why hadn't he simply crushed them all? Had the teenager spared them because he knew they'd have to focus on rescuing people in the building? Injuries would have kept them busier. Ibiki wondered why the boy had done it, as much as how. He considered calling in Uchiha Sasuke or Maito Gai to get a better idea of Elric's motivations, but Gai was out on a mission, and there wasn't time, anyway.

The council would have to be alerted to the interrogation department's new location. He also wanted to call back a few of their earth jutsu specialists from the border to help with the underground search. He considered calling the tech research department that now had Elric's arm, to warn them he might be on the way there, but decided against it. Sending more security to the building would only draw attention to it.

The floor shook for a moment and the volume of radio chatter increased, but it turned out to be nothing--just the building settling again. Ibiki went to his office and found everything was still secure. No paperwork had been damaged, though it had fallen off his desk and scattered all over the floor.

He paused for a moment as a bright side suddenly occurred to him. At least now the council would approve the more interesting methods of interrogation he used to acquire information.

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Ed had lost what little fondness he'd had for spelunking under the Drachman mountain range. Today there was no giant homunculus tunneling after him, but there would probably be something just as bad any minute now. Ed took another shallow breath and scrambled forward. He was gaining a whole new respect for three-legged dogs.

Whether he was lightheaded from the lack of oxygen or the oversized transmutation, he wasn't sure. More than anything he wanted to lay down and sleep. He was exhausted and out of adrenaline, but he knew stopping meant they'd find him, or he'd suffocate.

He found the end of his current tunnel by running his head into it. He focused on the array on his left palm for a moment, using it to excite the trace amounts of neon gas in the air, just enough to give off a faint glow. He supposed he could have transmuted a torch out of something in his cell, but that would've ended badly if one of his tunnels opened up a gas main.

He used the bolt he'd broken off the gurney to scratch out an earth-altering array. He didn't want to risk using the array on his palm if he didn't have to, especially when a slip-up could drop ten thousand tons of earth on his head. The array glowed and the earth trembled a little as a new tunnel opened up before him. He collapsed the old tunnel behind him, just as he had repaired the walls he'd broken to get out of his cell, and erased the arrays he'd used to sink the building. That would keep the bastards guessing.

Ed didn't know where he had started, so he tunneled and crawled until he could barely breathe. After a few hours, or maybe days, Ed started angling towards the surface. He was fairly certain he could avoid coming up through the foundations of a house, since soil and concrete reacted differently.

The reaction climbed in front of him, and a blue and yellow glow suddenly turned to blinding white sunlight. He flinched, but moved forward. He peered out of the tunnel, and took a relieved breath. He'd ended up in a run-down alley instead of in the middle of a prison yard. _If they even had prison yards in this place_. He decided it didn't matter.

_Alright, next goal: find my arm, or maybe find some food…_

CLANK!  
Ed dropped back into the tunnel, ears straining for the source of the sound. He thought about it for a second. It was the sound of metal striking metal, like a dumpster lid. Somebody laughed. A moment later, a kid was standing at the mouth of the tunnel peering down at him.

"You look like a rabbit," the kid said.

"What do you mean I look like a rabbit?" Ed demanded.

"Cause you got scared and jumped in a hole."

"I'm not scared," Ed said. "You just startled me."

The kid laughed again. Ed was pretty sure the kid was a boy, maybe seven or eight years old, with hair that needed to be cut, and baggy, patched clothes. Not that Ed was in much better shape. His transmuted hospital clothes weren't exactly in the best shape before he went underground. He sort of hoped the smell of freshly turned earth would cover the fact that he hadn't had a shower in…forever. He supposed the upside was that he didn't look very threatening.

"Nope," the kid said. "Rabbit."

Ed sighed. "Not just rabbits live in holes. Badgers and foxes and assorted cool animals also live in ho-…underground."

"Yeah, but you still jumped like a rabbit."

Ed huffed. He probably wasn't going to win this argument. He shouldn't even be having this argument.

"Hey kid, where am I?"

"I'm not a kid. I'm Kaemon and I'm practically grown up!" The kid paused. "What did you ask again?"

"Where am I?" Ed repeated.

"You don't know where you are?"

"No, that's why I asked."

"You're in Konoha," Kaemon said.

"Where in Konoha?"

"By the Iron district."

"Is that near the hospital?" Ed asked.

"No, that's way on the other side of the village. Why? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm just a bit lost," Ed said as he climbed out of the hole again. The hospital hadn't been far from the interrogation office Ibiki had marched him to. Ed supposed that meant he had time to get some fresh air and plan. Of course, far away for a kid might not be the same as for a bunch of trained assassins.

"What happened to your arm?" the kid asked.

"Some jerks took it," Ed said. "I'm trying to find out where they put it."

"Oh."

"Is there a water fountain around here or something?" Ed asked.

"No, most of the pipes got broke during the invasion. They haven't fixed them in our neighborhood, yet. We got some water at my house, if you want," Kaemon offered. "Mr. Rabbit," he added a moment later.

"Sure, thanks," Ed said, grinding his teeth. At least it was _Mister _Rabbit.

Ed knew there'd probably be trouble if the kid's parents were home, but it would be suspicious to ask about it. Of course, as they wandered out of the alley into an empty, ruined street, Ed started thinking that nobody's parents were home. Kaemon's home turned out to be a ground floor apartment in a building that was three-quarters collapsed. They climbed over a great deal of rubble and then through a curtain that was acting as a rear wall. There were signs posted all over the place, declaring the place condemned.

"What happened?" Ed asked.

"During the invasion, a giant snake busted through the east gate and knocked down a bunch of buildings. We used to live on the third floor, but that isn't there anymore. We moved in here. The people that used to live here left, anyway."

"How come you didn't leave?"

"There isn't really anywhere to go," Kaemon said. "We were at the emergency shelter for a while, but my mom didn't like it there, so we came back here.

"Why didn't you get a new apartment?"

"There aren't any. And they aren't going to fix this one until the important buildings are done," Kaemon said. "Come on."

He led Ed to a barrel of water under a rain gutter. With some misgivings, Ed drank.

"Half the kids from my school live at the shelter now," the kid said. "Our neighborhood got really smashed up. Junko said a giant toad was fighting the giant snakes, but I don't know if I believe that."

"How come you aren't in school?" Ed asked.

"School's only half-days so we can help fix up the village."

"Oh," Ed said.

The apartment was filled with broken junk, probably scavenged from other ruined buildings. Ed had spent plenty of time hanging around with the down and out, Ishbalan camps or government "shelters" for displaced people. It still bothered him, though. He wondered if the kid really had parents. Some of the junk in the building was probably too big for a seven-year-old to move on his own._ Why would you leave your kid alone in a mess like this? _Ed wondered, feeling cold and very tired.

"How do you tie your shoes?" Kaemon asked suddenly.

"What?" Ed asked.

"How do you tie your shoes with only one hand?" Kaemon asked again.

"I'm not wearing shoes," Ed said.

"If you had shoes, could you tie them?"

"Yeah." Ed said.

Kaemon wandered into another room and came back with a pair of shoes. Ed was surprised to find they were the right size. He was also pleased to see they were real shoes, and not those strange sandals almost everyone in this country wore. The boy set them in front of Ed and watched expectantly. Ed frowned. He didn't want to be a freak show, but if he got free shoes, it wouldn't be such a bad tradeoff. He pulled the shoes on and tied them. The kid looked awed to see a square knot done single-handed. Apparently he didn't even notice the metallic state of Ed's left foot, which was a relief.

"You got anything to eat?" Ed asked.

Kaemon nodded and vanished into the rubble, returning shortly with a couple of cans and a crank can-opener. He handed the opener to Ed and watched eagerly.

Ed was getting tired of being entertainment. He placed his palm down on top of the can and deconstructed it along the solder line.

"How'd you do that?" Kaemon asked, as Ed gulped down the fruit salad he'd liberated.

"Alchemy," Ed said.

"Open another one!"

Ed opened three more cans and a pickle jar before the kid got bored.

"So is that a can-open-jutsu or something? Why don't you use signs?"

Ed shrugged. "It's not the same thing."

"Oh," Kaemon said.

"But alchemy can do some pretty neat stuff that jutsu can't," Ed said. He put his hand on a cracked plate that was sitting on top of a pile of busted crockery. He focused through the array on his palm and the ceramic glowed and healed. "It's good for fixing things."

"Like apartments?" Kaemon asked eagerly.

Ed nodded. "So how about this? You let me crash here for the night, and tomorrow I'll fix this place up."

"Hmmm… I don't know. My parents might not want strange people in our house."

Ed looked at the curtain that was also a wall.

"I know! You can stay in the fort I built!" Kaemon said. "Come on! Come look!"

Ed followed the kid back out into another not-quite-completely wrecked room in the apartment next door. There was a pile of broken shelving with old blankets lashed randomly to it to make a roof. There were some stained cushions inside, and it didn't smell too much like mold.

"Yeah, you can stay here. It's a really good fort," Kaemon insisted.

Ed thought a single determined mouse could probably bring the whole thing down, but he didn't mention it. It wouldn't be a good idea to insult the person who'd be hiding him from the authorities.

"This'll work," Ed said. "I'm gonna sleep. How about you draw out what the apartment used to look like, so I'll know how to fix it tomorrow?"

"Sure!" the kid said. "But why are you going to sleep now? It's only like two o'clock!"

"It's that late?" Ed said, faking surprise. "I should've been asleep hours ago."

"You're weird," Kaemon said.

"I know," Ed said, crawling into the fort and closing his eyes.

"Goodnight, Mr. Rabbit!" Kaemon called.

Ed ground his teeth a little. At least rabbits weren't known for being short.

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**Half a Country Away…**

Tanzuka was only a dozen miles off, but Jiraiya decided they would stop for the day in the village they'd just entered. He could tell the brat was exhausted from trying to control the whirling ball of chakra he'd struggled so hard to produce. Of course, the first thing the brat did when he was informed of the break was to complain that he wasn't tired yet.

Naruto argued all the way to the hotel room, but passed out the moment he lay down. Jiraiya watched for a few minutes to make sure he wasn't going to pop back up and go wandering into the midst of missing nin again, and then went looking for a drink. He left a summoned toad to keep a lookout on the roof, just in case, though he didn't think the Akatsuki were that close on their tails at the moment.

There was one bar open, though it was still early in the afternoon. The selection wasn't exactly great, but Jiraiya settled. After he'd had a couple of rounds, he fished a photo and a sketch out of his pocket and showed them to the elderly barkeep.

"Do you recognize either of these people?" Jiraiya asked.

"Her no, him yes," the barkeep said, tapping the sketch.

Jiraiya silently congratulated himself on his artistic abilities. He thought he'd done a pretty good job catching the strange teenager's likeness, though Naruto insisted it was barely passable. They'd had a long argument about the sketch making Ed look too girly, and then about it making Ed look like he was mean, and then about it making Ed look like he was drunk. It annoyed Jiraiya to the point that he took a pencil and paper and told Naruto to do a better sketch if he could. The whiskered boy produced a bizarre, almost cubist picture that may have been a face, or possibly a flower arrangement. And he had the nerve to say "See, like this," when he presented his artistic oddity to the toad sannin.

"That's Edward, isn't it?" the old man asked, bringing Jiraiya back to the present.

"How long ago did you see him?" Jiraiya asked as he slipped the photo of Tsunade and the sketch back into his pocket.

"Oh, Ed hasn't been around for months and months. Sure do miss that kid. He talked funny, but there wasn't nothing around he couldn't fix."

"Talked funny?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, he had a really strong accent, and it wasn't from any dialect I'd ever heard. He never seemed to want to put enough vowels in words, either. Is he in some kind of trouble?"

"He got in a fight, he's hospitalized, and we're trying to find his people," Jiraiya said as he pondered the accent.

He hadn't really noticed anything when he had spoken with the boy, though it was only a half-dozen words in all. There was a definite difference in accents among the elemental countries, but he couldn't think of one that dropped vowels.

"He didn't tell you anything?" the barkeep asked.

"He's not really in a condition to talk," Jiraiya said. "He was still unconscious from blood loss the last time I saw him."

The old barkeep sighed. "That's not a great surprise. He had quite a temper for a little guy."

In his hiding place in Konoha, Ed cursed in his sleep.

"He got into a lot of fights?" Jiraiya asked.

"Never threw a punch when it wasn't called for, as far as I saw, but he could insult and argue well enough even if he didn't always have enough words. We worried that he'd mouth off to a ninja and that would be the end of him."

"A lot of people here knew him?"

"Half the people in the village had him over to fix things: broken windows, ripped clothes, smashed radios. If you could break it, he could put it back together," the barkeep said. "And he didn't charge much, either. He kept to himself mostly, but everybody around here liked him even if he was short-tempered and weird."

"Do you know where he lived when he was here?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, he used to stay with Kioshi, the hermit. Kioshi might be at his house, the last one at the bottom of the valley down that way," the old man said pointing. "He's usually there if he's not off in the woods. Of course, if you ask him where Ed was from, you won't get any sense."

"And why is that?" Jiraiya asked.

"Kioshi makes his way gathering rare things in the forest. I think the day he came across Ed he might've been 'testing' some mushrooms or some such thing. He claimed the kid fell out of a hole in the air, and that a monster appeared."

"A monster?"

The old man nodded. "He said it just appeared in front of Ed as he was getting to his feet. The monster put a hand on the kid's head and then said something Kioshi couldn't understand. The kid said something back, and then the monster laughed and vanished. I don't know if Kioshi thought the kid was blessed or cursed, but he was sure broke up about him leaving."

"And did you ever ask Ed about this monster?" Jiraiya asked.

The old man nodded. "Yes, as a matter of fact; yes, I did. I asked him if he walked out of thin air and talked to monsters. And do you know what he said? Well these aren't his exact words, but with his accent and everything, this is what I got from him. He said 'Everyone talks to monsters.' So I asked him about the monster he was talking to on the day Kioshi found him. And he just got this strange look on his face and he says 'That wasn't a monster. That was just Death.' That kid was some kind of strange at times. But there was nothing he couldn't fix."

Jiraiya nodded, paid his tab and left. He found the house at the bottom of the valley, but no one was there. It looked like no one had been for weeks. He let himself in. There was nothing in the small house that screamed "I explain the origin of Ed", but there were a few things that led Jiraiya to believe the hallucinogenic mushrooms were involved in this.

Someone had used soot from the fireplace to make strange drawings on almost every single wall. A lot of the pictures were of a fanged mouth with blackened teeth. Others outlined a towering, pale creature with spiky hair and horns on its head. It wore the same blackened grin. They weren't the kind of art you'd want in a museum, but Jiraiya recognized the likeness of the Death God when he saw it.

He considered going into the woods to look for this Kioshi fellow, but decided against it. He had to bring Konoha their fifth Hokage, first. He walked back to his hotel thinking about the strange things others had seen Ed do. He wondered what a person could say that would make Death laugh.

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_Ed felt his lungs freeze as he came apart. A moment later he was standing before the Gate. It was open, still, and thousands of thread-thin arms were still reaching out, snatching at him as he tried to order his thoughts, tried to remember why he had come. Something else moved, catching his eye. He turned to look at it, a blur except for the leg and the arm it had taken from him. It was still grinning. _

_"I know why you're here," it said._

_Ed nodded. Suddenly, he did too. They had to stop the reaction. There must be some way to shut down the array from the inside… The grinning thing shook its head._

_"You know there's nothing you can trade for that knowledge. There isn't enough of you. One small life isn't worth all that."_

_"Then how does their father know what to do?" Ed demanded. "And who are you calling small?"_

_"Father has traded millions of lives for his Alchemy," it said._

_"But those lives don't belong to him!" Ed objected._

_The grinning thing was silent._

_"What if I give my life, and you tell Al how to stop it?" Ed said._

_"That's nowhere near equivalent," it said. "You are two grains of sand trying to stop a flood."_

_"So you're saying the only way to stop them is to do what they're doing? To steal all those people's souls?"_

_"You might not have to steal them," the thing said. "If you ask, they might help."_

_"I don't have time to knock on a million fxxking doors and ask for peoples' souls!"_

_"There is only one door that matters," it said, waving Ed's right arm towards the Gate._

Ed's eyes slid open and he saw the roof of the 'fort'. He felt like he'd just closed them a second ago, but the light coming in was early morning, not afternoon. He shifted and sat up. His face felt puffy and he couldn't really breathe through his nose. He looked at the empty socket where there should have been an arm. The Gate's words still rang in his ears. He could still see its grin when he closed his eyes. He kept them open and staring. There were some kind of cocoons along the seams of the sheet that made up the roof. He wondered if they were moths. He was pretty sure there were moths in this world. An hour later he heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Mr. Rabbit! Are you still here?" Kaemon called.

"Yeah," Ed said, stumbling out of the fort. "I'm still here, even if I shouldn't be."

"What?" Kaemon asked, climbing over piles of junk to get to him.

"Never mind," Ed said. "You got the picture of the apartment?"

"Of course!" the boy said. "Come on! Hurry up! Everything's still broken!"

Ed could only nod in agreement.

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No trail was found even with the ANBU scouring the village the entire night. It didn't help matters much when dozens of gawkers came trampling into the area to 'see' the vanished building. It helped even less when the Daimyo's envoy came to see what was so interesting.

The envoy had been invited to tour the village to reassure the Daimyo that Leaf was once again secure and able to meet all Fire countries' military needs. So instead of mentioning an escaped prisoner with massive destructive potential, the Leaf tour guide had pleasantly explained that the interrogation department had been moved underground for security reasons. The village council had perpetuated the lie, but the envoy didn't entirely buy it. He extended his stay through the end of the week, so a general alert, warning the civilians about Edward Elric's true abilities, could not be dispensed. They'd had to settle for a warning about a short, one-armed shoplifter who was wanted for questioning.

Of course, the majority of upper-rank ninja were told what was going on when they checked in at the mission office, but that left a lot of gaps in coverage. If Elric had any sense, he'd take advantage and be halfway to the border by now.

Ibiki then received a radio transmission indicating Edward Elric had no sense at all.

"He built a house?" Ibiki repeated.

He didn't have any trouble finding it. Most of the buildings in the Iron district had been made uninhabitable, if not flattened, during the invasion. The street now had a single whole structure, and it definitely wasn't native to the village.

The exterior walls were heavy stone blocks leading up five stories to a sharply peaked roof, edged with vicious-looking gargoyles. The windows were narrow and high. The ground floor entrance was a forbidding arch with massive stone dogs stationed on either side, guarding a relatively short staircase.

A small boy (too small even to be Elric) and his parents were sitting on the steps, with an ANBU making sure they didn't wander off. When the parents noticed Ibiki, they got very nervous. The father got to his feet, and bowed so low he almost tipped over.

"Sir, please. We didn't know he was hiding a missing nin. He doesn't even understand what one is, and he did tell us, but we thought he was making things up. He used to have an imaginary friend, you see-"

The man stopped babbling as Ibiki's gaze moved from him to the boy.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked the boy.

"You're a ninja," the boy said. "I'm Kaemon."

The boy seemed nearly fearless and was trusting even for a civilian child. The master of interrogation doubted it would've been much of an effort for Elric to trick him into helping. Ibiki nodded and took a picture out of his pocket. It was a still of Ed from the security monitors in his cell.

"Do you know who this is, Kaemon?" Ibiki asked.

The boy nodded. "That's Mr. Rabbit."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "He said his name was Rabbit?"

"No, I just called him that cause he jumped into a hole in the ground."

"And where was this hole?"

"A couple of blocks that way. I scared him pretty good. He came over and slept in my fort, and then he fixed up our apartment. It's not as tall as it used to be, but it has cool stuff on it now. He wouldn't put in the slide, though. He said if there was a slide from the roof, somebody would fall off it and break their neck."

"How did he fix your house?" Ibiki asked, looking up at the building. It was a little smaller than the interrogation department, but that was still a massive thing to pull off.

"He took a stick and drew a big circle all around the outside, and then he drew some squiggles in it. It wasn't real letters or anything. And then he leaned down and put his hand on it. He only has one hand. His whole other arm is gone! Did he get it chopped off-"

"The building," Ibiki prompted.

"Right. He drew the circle and then he put his hand on it and the whole thing glowed and then it grew up, like these little flashing square things until it was a whole building, and then the light faded and it was done. And then he had me help him erase the circle so we didn't accidentally knock it down again. And then he left."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"He said he was going to find his arm," the boy said.

"Anything else?" Ibiki asked.

"He sweared some," the boy said.

"What exactly did he say?"

"Do I get to say?" the boy asked excitedly, looking to his parents for permission.

The father nodded warily.

"He said 'those fxxking bastards better not have broken it, or he was gonna fxxking deconstruct their dxxks and they'd be pissing out their xxxes for the rest of their miserable lives.'"

"Anything else?" Ibiki asked.

The boy nodded. "He said 'oh shit, don't repeat that, kid. Your mom's head will explode.' But it didn't. She just got mad and put soap in my mouth."

Ibiki nodded. So Elric was going to lurk until he could find his arm? That gave them plenty of opportunity to recapture him. Of course, mentioning the arm could be a ruse. And why could someone who could make an entire building not make another mechanical arm?

Ibiki walked up the steps and wandered through the building. It looked stable enough. But why do it? It was like throwing up a "come get me" sign. No logical person made decisions like this. How could a person like that survive, much less unnoticed, for any length of time in the shinobi nations? Whatever the answer was, Ibiki doubted he'd get it without strapping Edward down to another table, and maybe not even then.

An ANBU in a Koi mask appeared in front of him. "Sir, the civilians wish to know what you intend to do with them."

Ibiki thought he should probably put them in jail, to make sure they learned the importance of security in a hidden village, but they didn't have the time or the space or the personnel for something like that.

"Move the family to an emergency shelter. Make sure they stay there. Leave a team here disguised to look like them. He may come back."

The ANBU nodded.

Ibiki continued inspecting the building. Outside, he could hear the little boy start to cry as the family received their instructions.

"But it's our house! It's not fair!" he sobbed as his parents tried to hush him.

Ibiki wondered what it would take to make Edward cry.

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**Author's note:** Thanks, everyone, for the info about the technology in Naruto world! This chapter took forever to write. If it was worth the wait, let me know! The Review button is down there.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 8**

It was a fairly quiet morning in the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but even the civilians couldn't help but notice the tense hum in the air.

"What's with all the security?"

"-another invasion?"

"They'd call us back to the shelters if it was."

"How much are these oranges?" Ed asked, breaking up the gossip session.

"Two for ten ryo," the fruit seller said.

She looked at Ed's face as she spoke, but didn't seem to recognize him. She certainly didn't shout for the ANBU or police or whatever. Ed handed over the money and stuffed the fruit in his bag. Either his disguise was better than he thought, or the ninja weren't looking for him that hard. He nodded to the fruit seller and continued wandering through the market.

He adjusted the baggy jacket that hid the fact that his right arm was missing. He'd pinned the end of the sleeve into the pocket on that side to keep it from flopping out and stuffed it with some cloth and an L shaped piece of pipe to make an elbow shape. It wouldn't stand up to great scrutiny, but with the shopping bag hooked around it, he had an excuse for not using it.

He hadn't seen any 'wanted' posters of himself as he wandered the villages' shopping districts. Not even in the seedier areas where he pawned an "old family heirloom" that he'd transmuted from a trashcan lid for some quick cash. Still, they probably had pictures of him floating around somewhere.

He wasn't skilled with disguises, and the dye job on his hair hadn't turned out that great, so he'd pulled it up under a hat. He knew the theory behind transmuting flesh to alter one's appearance, but he'd never tried it. He was too uncomfortable with organic alchemy to ever practice on something living. Still, if he were really in desperate need, he could probably change his profile without getting his face blown off, like a certain alchemist he'd known.

The fugitive alchemist spent another hour wandering the markets. He did manage to add a bit to his mental map of the village. Still, what he'd added wasn't really pertinent to arm retrieval. He'd either have to listen in on conversations between ninja, which would most likely draw attention, or he'd have to start breaking into assorted important-looking buildings. That was pretty high on the 'please recapture me' list. He'd gone on half a dozen spying missions as a State Alchemist, but nobody he'd ever been after had been as aware as these ninja were. It was like they could tell if you were looking at them. Ed decided he needed a break, and also some food that wasn't cold, or transmuted, or fished out of a trash can.

Ed followed his nose to a slightly grungy-looking restaurant that was neither too empty nor too crowded, and seemed to have more civilians than ninja at its tables. Ed found a table and set his bag under it. He placed an order and looked around. There were a dozen old men playing dominoes and cards, and complaining about their children and/or grandchildren.

_The old people's section.__ Not too likely I'll run into a ninja here._

Just as he finished the thought, four ninja walked in; two boys and a girl, probably about 12 or 13, and a big, burly guy with a beard. They took the table right in front of Ed's. He was thinking about just getting up and walking away when his order arrived. He thanked the waiter and managed to split his chopsticks one handed when he noticed the girl ninja was watching him.

"You're eating all that by yourself?" she demanded shrilly.

"All what?" Ed asked. He had only ordered four plates.

Now they were all looking at him. He considered acting offended and using it as an excuse to move to another table, but that would make his single-handedness even more obvious.

"Stop being so troublesome," said one of the boys. His eyes were more than half closed. "It's bad enough you pick on Choji. You don't have to drag strangers into your glucose-deprived mania."

"Don't you call me troublesome, you lazy bum!"

"Sorry about them," the fat kid, apparently called Choji, said.

"Whatever," Ed said and started eating.

Only the bearded guy was still watching him, so Ed chewed with his mouth open until he turned around. Ed could hear them talking in low voices, but he didn't seem to be the topic of discussion, so he focused on his meal. Since no one was running off to tell the ANBU, he figured his existence, or at least his escape was still being kept out of the public eye. Or maybe Ibiki hadn't told his bosses yet. Ed smirked to himself. Maybe he'd be fired when they found out. But even if they did fire that crazy sadist, the replacement probably wouldn't declare all was forgiven and return Ed's arm.

He sighed. This was the same problem he'd had when fighting the homunculi. In fact, it was worse than that, because even if a ninja only had to die once, and not a thousand times to use up stolen lives, getting to that first death was nearly impossible. Most of them were too fast for him to hit with his fists or his alchemy. So his options were either to speed way up, or slow his opponents down. And to top it all off, he didn't really want to kill anyone, either.

So his alchemy couldn't win a contest of speed, especially without his right arm. He wondered if the technology from Amestris could. He could make a few kinds of chemical weapons, but the ninja could probably avoid any poisoned darts or clouds of knock-out gas he could cook up, if he had the ingredients. In a pinch, he could transmute guns and ammunition from scrap metal and a nitrogen source, but he hadn't seen any guns in this world, and he didn't want to give the local warmongers any good ideas. He could copy the colonel's fire alchemy, but that was likely to destroy half the city.

He frowned and inspected a weird vegetable that looked like a green bean impersonating broccoli. He took a bite and it didn't kill him.

_Stupid metaphorical veggies._

That's really all he'd done since arriving. Try it and see if it kills you. He'd learned the language and most of the customs, but he still felt like a stranger. He couldn't make himself stay in one place long enough for the feeling to go away. At first he told himself it was because he was looking for a way back home, but that was a lie. He knew the way. He just didn't want to pay the toll. How many lives would it cost to get back through the void to Amestris, 1000? 10,000? He couldn't begin to guess and he wouldn't let himself think of the calculations. If the idea got into his head, he didn't think he could get it out again.

His mind drifted to the creature that had let him into this world. It wasn't the Truth, and it wasn't human. It said it was a Death God, but that couldn't be right. He knew it was more powerful then he'd ever be, but it couldn't have been a god, because there weren't any. And why the hell had it offered him a job?

His chopsticks clinked loudly against his last plate, and he realized with a start that he had eaten everything. Though he wasn't struck with inspiration about how to get his arm back, his stomach was too full to twist with worry about it. He paid his tab, collected his groceries and was walking towards the exit when the world turned green.

"Edward! The power of youth has seen you through to freedom!"

Ed, who had taken shelter under a nearby table, peered out at the bellowing green maniac. Ed supposed he owed this guy for getting him to a hospital before he bled to death, but if he got him caught…

Before he could think of a threat, a hand caught the collar of his jacket and dragged him from his hiding place. Unfortunately because he only had one arm in a sleeve, the coat came up over his face, knocked off his hat, and then was pulled from his body completely. He landed on his butt on the floor.

Maito Gai stood in the entryway looking at the coat in his hand and the teenager on the floor, more than a little perplexed.

"What happened to your arm, Edward?" he asked loudly. "It wasn't damaged in that fight with the missing nin, was it?"

"Uh, no," Ed said, getting up and trying to take his coat back. Everyone in the restaurant was watching them now.

"My most amazing student Lee said you were searching for it earlier in the week."

"I know who's got it, I just don't know where they've got it," Ed said.

"They're withholding your arm from you?" Gai said. "How unjust! Who is doing this most un-youthful thing? I will speak to them and convince them of the error of their ways!"

"Look, its fine. Don't worry about it."

Ed tried to grab the coat back, but Gai kept making dramatic gestures that moved it out of his reach.

"Missing nin?" asked the burly, bearded ninja who'd been at the table next to his.

"Indeed, my fellow fanner of the fires of youth!" Gai bellowed as Ed considered just running for it. He could tell just about everyone else in the restaurant was thinking the same thing. "Edward ran afoul of those same dastardly villains who injured your arm and left my eternal rival in his current un-youthful state!"

"I'd love to hear about this," the bearded ninja said.

"Isn't this like…classified or something?" Ed said.

"Ah, of course!" Gai said. "We should retreat to a more secure location."

"Yeah, sure," Ed said. "I'm just going to run to the can really quick. Watch my bag for me? Thanks."

Ed wrote off the coat and started chalking out an array on the men's room wall as soon as he had the door closed. He made a door and stumbled outside into an alley, pausing just long enough to seal the wall up again.

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"So that little guy took on two S-class missing nin?" Asuma asked.

Gai nodded. "Indeed, though he obviously knew he could not win. His efforts were youthfully inspiring and noble!"

"He sure is taking a long time in the bathroom," Ino said. "Choji, go check on him," she ordered.

"Why don't you?" Shikamaru said.

"He's in the men's room, you idiot!" she said back.

"You never have a problem bothering us when we hide in the men's room," Shikamaru pointed out.

By that time, Choji had checked the bathroom and come back.

"He's gone," Choji said.

"What?" Ino said.

"There's nobody in there, and there's no window to climb out of. I wonder how he got away," the large boy mused.

The Jonin could find no trace of the missing alchemist. He seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Gai's feeling were a bit hurt as he walked to the missions office with Asuma and his Genin team. He was further disappointed when Asuma did not want to race there. (Asuma was praying silently for Kakashi's recovery so his odd co-worker would have his usual target back.) Gai didn't know why Edward would run off like that, but since there were no indications that he had been abducted, it seemed he had ditched them of his own free will.

Of course his motives became somewhat obvious when they arrived at the missions office and got the new list of alerts.

"That kid destroyed the interrogation department?" Asuma asked. "Why isn't there a general alert out?"

"He didn't destroy it," Kotetsu said as he shuffled through the mission scrolls that he was filing paperwork for. "He just moved it."

"But why?" Gai asked.

"You'll have to talk to Ibiki about that," the chunin said.

"I most certainly will!" Gai declared.

Across the village Ibiki shivered.

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Sasuke passed through the crowds of shoppers, eyes flicking over every form, searching for the correct height and size, and slightly unbalanced motion. Ino had told him about running into Edward Elric at a restaurant after the boy had "moved" the interrogation department. Somehow two jonin-sensei had missed an opportunity to capture the strange teenager. It led Sasuke more and more to the conclusion that most Leaf nin were useless fools.

He was just moving into the exchange district when a flash of pink gouged the corner of his eye.

"Sasuke!" an artificially high voice called.

He stopped walking and waited for Sakura to catch up.

"Are you going to train?" she asked.

"No," he said.

"Are you still looking for that strange boy?" she asked. "I can help."

He wanted to say you can help by leaving me the hell alone, but she'd still follow him, and she'd mope while she did it.

"Do you know what he looks like?" Sasuke asked.

"Sort of like Naruto, but with one arm," She said. "I talked to Ino and she said he'd dyed his hair a kind of brownish color. She also said he eats more than Choji and scowls a lot. Do you think he really sank the interrogation building? I know that's all supposed to be classified, but I heard these two chunin talking about-"

"He did," Sasuke interrupted. "I was standing outside when it happened. There were blue and yellow flashing lights and then the earth just moved out of under it. There was no chakra at all."

"No chakra? How do you know?"

"My eyes," he said.

"Oh yeah," she said. "Your eyes are so awesome. There's nothing you don't see, right Sasuke?"

"If you want to help look, then look, don't talk," he said.

She nodded and mimed zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key. He supposed she thought she was being cute. She should've just made the hand sign for silent pursuit. He knew she knew it. He stalked through the civilian neighborhoods, and Sakura kept to his heels. He could feel her eyes on his back. He wondered if she was even remotely aware of their surroundings. He wasted most of the afternoon looking for signs of the alchemist but there were none.

He was about to give up for the day and go train when he noticed the Glowing Ground ceramic works. Team 7 had done a mission for them, delivering a crate of funeral urns to a mortuary. Naruto had almost cost them the mission when he found out "dead people" would be put into the "vases" and refused to touch them because of ghosts. The whole building had been crushed during the invasion.

Only now it was back.

Sakura followed his gaze and made a sort of hiccupping sound.

"Wasn't that…?"

Sasuke nodded. The genin walked slowly up to the shop. The buildings on either side were mostly rubble and spilling out into the street. They had to climb over quite a bit to get to the door. The lights were out. Sasuke tried the front door, but it was locked. He looked through the window, and saw the shop was in disarray with tables and shelves in random places and pottery all over the floor. None of it looked broken, though, just out of place. He picked the lock and stepped in. Sakura followed him as he moved through the store into the workshop behind it, towards the sound of voices.

"-the gas lines. I don't know, so I'm not going to screw with it," a young male voice said. Sasuke recognized it as Ed's.

"I usually bring in my own tanks," replied an older man, the owner, Mr. Nishi. "The stuff they have running through this village…well I hate to speak ill of my home, but half the time I can't tell if it's butane or propane or a cow's fart. I could show you a dozen masterpieces ruined by uneven heat!"

"Uh, right, maybe later," Ed said.

"You know, for a figment of my imagination you sure are surly," the old man said.

"Maybe you shouldn't drink so much," Ed said.

Sasuke slipped through into the work shop, ducking behind a kiln. He could see Ed clearly. The alchemist was seated on top of another kiln, his feet kicking back and forth against the side of it.

"Well, I don't know what else there is to do. My shop's gone and the insurance won't cover it, and the village counsel won't give me a loan since pottery is not an "immediate resource" whatever that means," the old man grumbled.

"You told me that three times already," Ed said. "You want anything else fixed, old man? I've got other places to be."

"I guess you could do the outdoor kilns, if you feel up to it," the old man said.

Ed hopped off the kiln and followed the man out the back of the store.

"Should we call the ANBU?" Sakura whispered when the two were outside.

"No," Sasuke said, creeping after them.

Ed picked up a stick with his left hand and started dragging it in a circle around the yard. Sasuke was fairly certain the alchemist didn't have the use of his right arm. It wasn't moving at all, even to balance as he tottered across the unlevel ground. After the circle was drawn, Ed wandered around it again, this time adding symbols and strange foreign letters to the pattern. The owner watched all this with a faintly amused expression, every once in a while taking a flask from his pocket and throwing back a mouthful. Ed paused after about twenty minutes of work. He knelt down and pressed his left hand to the edge of the pattern.

The light was brilliant in the growing dark. If half the ANBU on patrol didn't notice that, they were blind as well as dumb. In the midst of the light, Five beehive-shaped kilns grew up, and remained whole as the light faded.

"That look alright?" Ed asked the old man.

"Sure does. It'll be a shame to wake up tomorrow and find this all gone," he said.

Ed shrugged. "Anything else need fixing?"

"Well I do have a trick knee-" the old man started.

"Sorry," Ed interrupted. "I don't do organics."

"Guess that's that," the old man said, brushing his hands together.

"Yeah, whatever the hell 'that' means," Ed said. "See you around, old man."

"See you around, brat," the old man said, saluting with his flask.

Ed wandered away over the rubble behind the shop and Sasuke darted after the alchemist, and Sakura followed him. If the old man saw them, he didn't say anything. He seemed too busy looking at his resurrected store, and then blinking in a suspicious manner.

Sasuke followed silently for several blocks, but Ed didn't seem to be going anywhere, just walking aimlessly through the ruined sections of the village. Ed finally took a turn into a dead end, where a collapsed building completely blocked the road. Sasuke decided it was as good a place as any for a confrontation. He signaled for Sakura to block the target if he tried to retrace his steps, and then leapt up onto the side of a building. He ran along the side of the building, and dropped silently into Edward's path.

He was hoping the other boy would look startled, but Ed's face held only annoyance.

"What do you want?" Ed asked.

Sasuke could barely control the surge of anger that made the muscles in his neck twitch. He knew Ed possessed some powerful pseudo-ninjutsu, but he was slow, and as physically weak as a civilian. He was certain he could contain the other teenager, despite the fact that the better part of the interrogation department had failed to do so. The Leaf jonin and guards were just incompetent. All Ed had going for him was his ability to resist the sharingan.

_And yet, he still did better against your brother than you did_, a voice in the back of Sasuke's mind hissed. The twitching in his neck got worse.

"You got something to say to me?" Ed said, taking a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket. He put one in the corner of his mouth and then fished out an oversized lighter. Sasuke's eyes zoomed in on the lighter. There was a patterned circle on the side, but Ed's fingers covered most of it. Ed flipped the lighter open and rested his thumb on the steel.

"Who are you, again?" Ed asked.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said. He saw Sakura had moved into position behind the target.

"Name sounds familiar," Ed said, pausing theatrically. "Oh, yeah, you're the little twerp who was threatening to cut my throat after I was injured trying to help you idiot Leaf nin out. Let me guess, you're here with a heartfelt apology?"

"No," Sasuke said, resisting the urge to strangle the overconfident idiot. "I'm here to offer you a deal. Tell me how you got out of my brother's Mangekyo Sharingan, and I won't drag you back to the interrogation department.

He could see Sakura over Ed's shoulder. She did not look pleased by what she heard. It didn't really matter, since Sasuke was going to bring him in, no matter what.

Ed rolled his eyes. "Well if there's one kind of person you know you can trust, it's definitely the kind of person who throws a temper tantrum and tries to kill an ally in a fight. You want to know what the big secret is to getting out of that freaky, whirly-eye hallucination torture world? It's so simple it's just one word: Blink."

"Blink?" Sasuke asked through gritted teeth.

"Blink," Ed said, shutting his eyes.

Ed spun the steel on the lighter. The flint struck.

The street exploded.

Sasuke's hands were moving together to form the seals for replacement technique. But before he could complete even the first seal, the shockwave blasted him off his feet. The world went white, and for a moment he was floating in an unbearable pool of heat. He hit the ground.

The heat was gone, but all his exposed skin still felt like it was on fire. He blinked, but saw nothing, a white, featureless nothing. He strained his ears, there was a crackling sound as something burned, but he couldn't hear Ed's footsteps. He couldn't tell if he was moving in to finish him off.

"Sasuke!" Sakura shrieked.

He flinched at the sound, coming from much closer than he expected.

"Can you see him? Where is he?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know!" she said. "He's gone. He's just gone."

Sasuke rubbed at his eyes. The skin on his hands and face stung from the contact.

"Oh god, you're all red!" Sakura said, dropping down next to him.

"Does it look bad?" he asked.

"You look like you've got a bad sunburn, everywhere, but there aren't any blisters. It's only first degree burns," she said.

"What about my eyes?" he asked.

"They're bloodshot, but they look alright," she said. "Why?"

"I can't see," he said. "It's probably just flash blindness," he added, more to convince himself than her.

"We have to get you to the hospital!" she said, grabbing hold of his burning arm and pulling him up.

He managed not to hiss in pain as she dragged him down the street. An ANBU squad stopped them at the end of the block. Of course they had failed to catch Elric. They wanted to know why Sasuke was practicing fire jutsu outside of an approved training area.

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The old man had sobered up during the interview, but not much. Masao had spent the better part of two hours trying to pry details out of him, but apparently there wasn't much to pry. Ibiki sat back in his chair watching through the cameras.

"I told you before," Nishi said. "I was out in front of where my workshop used to be, drinking and having a smoke. I hear this noise behind me, so I turn, and there's this little guy walking right where my office used to be. So I yelled at him to get out of my store. He said 'there's no store here', and we argued a bit, and I forget what exactly I said, but he said that I shouldn't just give up, that I should try to fix it. And I told him it couldn't be fixed. And he bet me my lighter that he could. Yeah…so I was out a lighter then, but my shop…my shop's really back."

"Was there anything special about the lighter?" Masao asked.

"No," Nishi said. "It was just a lighter. He scratched a picture on the side of it, but it was just a lighter."

"Can you reproduce the picture?"

"No, for the hundredth time," the old man declared.

Ibiki switched cameras to the Uchiha's interrogation. The boy looked like a boiled lobster, but the med nins had declared him fit for duty. According to the Hanaro girl (in yet another interrogation room), Edward's flame attack had caught the other genin in a huge explosive cloud of fire. But the only real damage had been temporary blindness and the equivalent of a full-body sunburn. It took a lot of skill to control a fire that precisely.

Of course, the Uchiha was not the least bit grateful that he hadn't been burned to death. He seemed insulted that his opponent had wandered away without finishing the fight.

And of course, there were no signs of Edward Elric. The ANBU had scoured the area, but the boy hadn't dug another tunnel, and their scent trackers hadn't been able to pick anything up in the recently scorched air. It appeared it was only luck that had the two genin stumbling across Elric while searching for him. Ibiki supposed it was only a matter of time before another ninja stumbled across the boy in the act of…repairing something.

Ibiki looked away from the video feeds to inspect the reports on his desk. Apparently four more houses had popped up in the middle of the ruined areas, along with a grocery store and an adjoining furniture store. Edward had repaired the buildings and quite a bit of their remaining furnishings. In only one of the instances did he ask for any kind of payment. The old lady who owned the grocery had set up a mobile stand in front of it. In that case Edward had walked away with a couple of cans of juice, packages of cookies, and some candy, in exchange for a million ryo building.

It. Made. No. Sense.

Ibiki stretched his hands. Even after all these years the scarred skin still felt too tight. Either Edward was completely insane, or…

He supposed the boy could be trying to win popular support, but he was staying well away from anyone whose support might actually matter. However, if he kept up this behavior, it shouldn't be too hard to set a trap for him.

He went back to looking at the bright red Uchiha.

A trap seemed like their best bet at the moment, but he wondered if they could afford to wait that long.

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**The Next Day…**

"Well, who else would write on the side of the Tower?" Iruka demanded. "And don't say Naruto, because I know he's out of the village on a mission."

"It wasn't me!" Konohamaru insisted, stamping his foot indignantly. "I don't even write that neatly, either!"

Iruka's eyes drifted up to the huge message scrawled across the side of the tower in kanji ten feet tall.

YOU'RE GOING DOWN! It declared.

"So some other brat with delusions of grandeur wrote that?" Iruka asked.

"Must have," the boy said sullenly.

Iruka watched the boy for signs of guilt, but all he saw was angry pouting. Even though he didn't have the boy in his class every day anymore, Iruka thought he knew Konohamaru pretty well. Out of all the academy students, the Third Lord's grandson was the only one with the gall to pull something like this. But if he didn't do it, who else would have the correct combination of guts, skill, and stupidity to write all over a major village landmark? (And more importantly, how much of a ramen bribe would it take for Konohamaru to get over being dragged downtown to face a false accusation?)

Iruka was about to dismiss the boy when a sizzling noise caught his attention. He whirled. Blue and yellow lights were welling up around the base of the tower. It wasn't like any jutsu he'd seen before.

"I'm not doing that, either!" Konohamaru added.

The ground started shaking. Iruka snatched up the protesting boy and leapt onto the side of a building across the street. Civilians were running away in confusion on the streets below. ANBU were converging on the scene from the surrounding rooftops. A few ANBU dropped to the ground and began weaving signs, but whatever they were doing, it wasn't fast enough. The tower sank. Power cables and phone lines sheared off as the building descended. A few office workers hopped out of windows, and a dozen ANBU rushed in by similar means, but there wasn't much time for evacuation. In less than a minute, the entire building was submerged with soil flowing like water to cover over the roof.

ANBU and more plainly dressed Jonins rushed forward to dig their way into the offices. They didn't look panicked, just pissed. Iruka had of course, heard the rumors about the interrogation department, but this…

"Are we under attack?" a boy called up to Iruka.

It took the former academy teacher a moment to recall the boy's name. He'd graduated a few years ago; he was a genin still, though.

"No Shinji. I don't think so," Iruka said jumping down to the ground. "Please escort Konohamaru back to the Sarutobi compound."

"But I wanna stay!" the Third's grandson objected.

"Fine, grab a shovel," Iruka said. "You can help dig the building out."

"Never mind."

"Oh crap! The wall!" shouted a ninja from the roof above.

Iruka sprinted up the nearest building to join him. Iruka looked where the other shinobi was pointing, and for a moment he didn't notice anything amiss. There was no gap, no giant summoned creatures breaking through to devour and crush them. Then he noticed the hand prints. He focused some chakra in his eyes and nearly slipped off the roof in surprise. They weren't giant handprints painted on the wall. They were holes in the shape of hands, carved completely through the meters-thick stone and wood. And more than that, they must be at least twenty feet tall for Iruka to be able to see them from so far away.

This was definitely a prank beyond Konohamaru's caliber.

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**The Konoha Municipal Dump**

Ed glared at the files he'd gone through so much trouble to steal. Sinking that big tower had been a very useful distraction, but now Ed was starting to suspect all the important files must have been in that building. The ones he had stolen from the building next door were not much use at all. Most of the files were about rebuilding the civilian areas of the city. A few did mention areas where building could not occur because it came too close to military buildings. Nothing mentioned the "stolen automail arm" depot.

Ed huffed at their well-founded paranoia. He supposed it wasn't entirely a waste of time proving that he could get into even their secure buildings. And now he had a list of secure areas he wasn't supposed to go near. He supposed he could pull his building sinking stunt a few more times and break into those. Of course it was also 9/10ths luck that he hadn't crossed paths with any Leaf ninja during his little heist.

He'd considered taking something important-looking and valuable to offer in exchange for his arm, but that would just give them a time and place to set a trap for him, and if he had to draw out every array or use a slow focus like his tattoos, he'd be taken down in a second. Even using the colonel's flame alchemy wasn't going to cut it. Not without frying a whole lot of people and things, anyway. He'd used the lowest temperature he could produce on that Uchiha jerk and he still came close to cremation.

He'd also considered sealing off the hospital and searching there, but that would just get people killed. If nurses and doctors couldn't get people their medicine in time, it would be Ed's fault.

Ed sighed and started getting ready to hole up for the night. His hideout inside a tower of garbage was already pretty secure. All he really needed to do was conceal the entrance, and hope no ninja decided to practice blowing up things in the dump in the middle of the night. He was just about all set when he heard the laughter. It wasn't the nice kind of laughter.

"Try to hit it in the eye," a boy's voice said.

"That's an impossible shot," another voice challenged.

"It can't even fly. You can't hit that, you can't hit nothing!"

Ed ground his teeth. _It's not my problem._

But there was a little voice echoing in the back of his head, and it sounded suspiciously like Al. _They're being cruel._

_It's not my problem. I'm not going to risk getting caught over some dumb animal._

_Big brother, that's heartless_!

"Fine!" Ed said out loud. "Shut up."

He started stomping through the dump and realized, as he was about to turn the corner of another garbage tower, that he'd stormed all this way without his jacket. His right sleeve was empty, his face was exposed.

"Hold it down with this, and I'll poke its eye with a nail!" one of the boys said.

"Screw it," Ed growled to himself, storming on. "What are you little bastards up to?" he demanded.

It was obvious what they were up to. There were two boys, maybe nine or ten years old, and they were harrying a little bird with its right wing all kinked up.

"Nothing," one boy said.

"None of your business," said the other, dropping a nail on the ground.

"You gonna eat that bird?" Ed asked.

"Ew, no!" said the first boy.

"Then leave it alone," Ed said.

"What are you going to do if we don't?" the other boy said. "You're just some crippled bum."

"I still got two feet, and that's a kick in the ass for each of you," Ed said.

He stomped towards them and they took off running.

"Chirp!"

He looked over at the bird. If it couldn't fly, then it was probably a matter of hours before a cat or one of the oversized rats he'd seen wandering around would get the stupid thing. Ed wondered if maybe he should just wring its neck and put it out of its misery.

_You know where the veterinarian's office is_, the voice that may have been Al or his conscience said.

"Yeah," Ed mumbled, "Right by the hospital where all those ninja are looking for me."

_But they won't be expecting you there_.

"You're going to get me killed over a bird, Al," he said.

He leaned down to pick up the bird, but it just hopped out of his reach every time he got close.

"Maybe it wants to die," he muttered.

_It's just afraid_.

"Damn it, fine."

Ed knelt down and used a broken bicycle spoke to scratch out an array. He slapped his hand down on it, and bits of metal buried in the ground leapt up, forming wires that whirled around the bird, and wove into a cage, trapping it before the bird could even think of hopping clear.

"Ha! Got ya!" Ed said. "Now who's smarter?"

"Chirp!" said the bird.

"Oh, whatever."

Ed went back to his hideout, grabbed his jacket, and slinked towards the vet's office, cage in hand. He supposed it worked to his advantage that he was never doing what was expected. A couple of ninja walked right by a kid with a bird cage.

The vet's office was still open. There weren't many people in the waiting room, just a woman with a cat case, a man with an unoccupied ferret leash, and a ridiculously large dog that seemed to be there by itself. Ed walked to the counter and set the cage down. The woman behind the counter just looked at him.

"This is a veterinary clinic, right?" Ed asked in annoyance.

"Yes," the woman behind the counter said.

"Well, here's a bird for you," Ed said, pushing the cage in her direction.

"What do you expect me to do with that?" she asked.

Ed tried very hard to remain polite and inconspicuous.

"This is a vet's office. This is an injured animal. If you can't bridge that mental gap, should you really be working here?" Ed said.

The giant dog had gotten up from its seat by the door and wandered over to Ed, poking a cold wet nose somewhere he did not appreciate. Ed shifted and gave the dog a push away. It sat down again, right on top of his feet.

"Are you the owner of this bird?" the woman asked.

"No."

"Then who is?"

"I don't know. Mother nature? It's just some bird."

"Actually," the bird said, "My allegiances are with the Village Hidden in the Sand."

Ed yelped, tried to step back, got his feet tangled in the dog's and fell over. He cracked the back of his head on the floor.

"It seems like he's never met a nin bird before," the dog said.

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**Author's Note**: Sorry this chapter took so long. Insert random excuse here. (And for those of you wondering about Naruto, he'll be back in a chapter or two.)


	9. Chapter 9

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 9**

Ed was awake. He could see the ceiling of the vet clinic, hear the rumbling voice of the dog and the shrill voice of the bird, but Nina and Alexander and the thing they became were all he was aware of, up until the dog started licking his face. While not exactly smelling salts, horrible dog breath did manage to drag him back to the here and now.

"Uh! Get off!" Ed demanded, pushing the dog away with his left hand.

The dog backed up a little, just enough for Ed to sit up, but then flopped across his lap before he could stand.

"Hey!" Ed objected again. "I said get off!"

He tried to shift the huge animal, but it was twice as big as a St. Bernard and one working arm was not enough to move it. The secretary seemed content to let the dog handle it, and was talking to someone on the phone about the talking ninja bird. Ed looked at the other humans in the waiting room, but they offered no assistance. Ed tried to pull the dog off by the scruff of its neck.

"Get off me!" Ed ordered, tugging at the fold of skin. "Bad dog!"

The dog turned sharply and snapped its teeth an inch from Ed's nose.

"Bad human!" it growled. "Sit still!"

Ed let go and raised his left hand in surrender. The dog licked his face again and he winced.

"Good human!" it said.

Ed scowled.

"Now, how did you come to be in possession of one of the Sand's nin birds?" the dog asked.

"I just found him at the dump. How he got there is his business," Ed said.

"He is telling the truth about that," the bird said. "I was trying to find my way to the Kage's tower when a falcon clipped me. I don't know if it was sent by Sound or not, but it followed me to the ground. I hid among the refuse until it left, but since I'm in no condition to fly, I was making my way to the tower on foot, when those awful human children found me and tried to finish me off."

"Hey, if you can talk, why didn't you tell those little bastards to leave you alone?" Ed asked.

"I couldn't risk compromising my message. If they realized what I was carrying and turned it over to the wrong party, the results could be disastrous," the bird said.

"But you aren't carrying anything," Ed pointed out.

"When I was first injured, I swallowed my message scroll. I will regurgitate it when my contact arrives."

"Ew," Ed said. "Well if that's taken care of, can I go?"

"As soon as you tell me who you are," the dog said. "And keep in mind I'm very good at sniffing out lies."

"I'm Ed. Nice to meet you. Now get off!"

"That name sounds familiar."

"I don't see why it would. I think I would remember meeting a giant, bossy talking dog," Ed said.

"And I think I'd remember meeting a tiny human with two fake limbs-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SMALLER THAN A FLEA YOU OVERGROWN-"

SNAP!

Ed flinched back as the dog's teeth came within a centimeter of his nose.

"Quiet!" the dog said.

Ed gulped.

"Good human."

Ed glared.

"Maybe he's an escaped mental patient," the bird suggested. "He was talking to himself when he found me."

"Are you a mental patient?" the dog asked.

"I've never even been in a mental hospital!" Ed declared.

The dog sniffed at him. "You're lying."

"Am not!" Ed said.

"Are too."

"I've visited crazy people in the hospital, but I'm not crazy," Ed insisted.

"That still doesn't smell true," the dog said.

Ed racked his brain. He couldn't remember being a mental patient, and he'd only ever seen a physiologist once… after the thing with Scar, some shrink at the military hospital had wanted him to take sedatives and rest. Figuring that might be it, he decided to confess.

"I had to go to a shrink one time, and I didn't even take the pills she gave me, so I'm not a mental patient, escaped or otherwise!" Ed concluded.

"That does smell true," the dog allowed. "But it still doesn't explain where I've seen you before. Where do you live?" the dog asked.

"He lives at the dump," the bird volunteered. "He has a whole camp set up in a tower of garbage. It looked cozy."

Ed gave the bird a sour look. It must have seen his camp when he went to get his coat.

"You live at the dump?" the secretary said, giving him an I-knew-I-was-better-than-you look. "Why?"

"My house burned down," Ed said, which was true from a long time ago, but still true.

"Why don't you go to the emergency shelter?" asked the woman with the cat case.

"Because it's crowded and I don't like people--or dogs--in my personal space," Ed said.

The dog sniffed at him again.

"Alright," the dog said, getting up. "I guess you can go."

Ed scrambled to his feet and zipped out the door before they could change their minds. He supposed it was better to be thought a crazy guy at the dump than a rogue alchemist. Of course, now he needed a new hideout, and somewhere to wash his face.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Tanzuka**…

Jiraiya finished up his report, and sealed the scroll. He wasn't sure who would end up receiving it, but the chief counselors were the most likely bet. He summoned a toad and handed it the document, and with a nod the creature obediently set out. He turned his attention back to the people crowding up his hotel room.

He normally would've been overjoyed to have two nubile women sharing his sleeping quarters, but these ladies didn't have a minute for him. They were both focused on Naruto, who lay unconscious on the futon between them. The long-haired, top-heavy blonde was mostly just watching the boy sleep, while her brunette companion monitored chakra circulation.

Naruto's heart seemed to be fine. A combination of Tsunade's medical jutsu and the demon fox's healing powers left not even a hint of the wound that had almost ended the boy's life at 13. Still, Tsunade seemed sure something would go wrong, and refused to leave his side. And of course Shizune wouldn't leave her boss alone with Jiraiya unless ordered to. So here they were, standing an awkward vigil.

Jiraiya was tempted to roll out his own futon and sleep, but he was sure that would draw the soon-to-be Fifth Hokage's ire. She must've felt him staring, because she turned around to glare.

"That was pretty low, bringing the kid out here just to bait me," she said.

"I'm a shinobi. A low blow is as good as any. Though the best blow is still a blow-"

"Finish that sentence and it will be your last," Tsunade warned.

He shrugged.

"You aren't the only reason I brought him along. I suppose you'll get this in a lot more detail when you're sworn into office, but the kid is at the top of a lot of hit-lists at the moment, not just Orochimaru's. The club the snake bastard joined is hunting down the tailed beasts, for reasons unknown. Kakashi's just the first of many casualties."

Tsunade shook her head. "It's a shame that our best got taken down by a bunch of traitorous punks. The Uchiha was one of them?"

Jiraiya nodded.

"So that trip to the town records office had something to do with them?" Tsunade asked.

"You had me followed?" he asked, looking at Shizune, who had probably done all the legwork. She shrugged.

"Whatever," he said, shrugging. "It's sort of related. When a couple of Akatsuki tried to snatch the brat our first day out of the village, I was…temporarily indisposed. A third party interfered, and kept them busy long enough for Maito Gai and me to get there."

"A rogue ninja?" Tsunade asked.

"No, not a ninja," he said. "To be honest, I don't know what the hell he is. According to the brat he can fix things by touching them, and calls what he does 'alchemy'. Ever heard of it?"

She shook her head.

"Well, he'll probably be your problem when we get back."

"I can't wait," she drawled.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

**Konoha Ornamental Garden…**

"-her husband. His own brother, can you believe it?"

"I knew she was no good. From the first-"

Ed sat in the shade of a tree eating a sandwich. A tall row of hedges separated him from the path. He could hear people wandering up and down on the other side of the wall of plants, but none of them tried to poke through or climb over. Bits of conversation floated through just fine. None of it seemed useful, but it was interesting.

"-said they'd sent Lord Jiraiya after her, and he took the Uzumaki brat with him," a woman said.

Ed perked up.

"The Fox brat?" a male voice whispered.

"Yes!" the woman hissed. "What were they thinking, sending a pervert and a monster after the princess? Likely as not they'll end up dead. Of course, the brat nobody would miss-"

Her voice trailed off out of hearing range. Ed frowned and took another bite from his sandwich. He'd been hoping to hear about his arm, but the comments about the goofy blond kid left him wondering. In a village full of hired killers, what do you have to do to earn the title monster?

"Hello there, Edward," said a shrill voice.

Ed nearly jumped out of his skin, but managed not to fall over this time. He looked up and saw the talking bird from the hospital was perched on top of the hedge.

"Hey," Ed said. "How'd you know I was here?"

"I asked around," the bird said. "A chickadee you gave toast crumbs to this morning said she saw you heading in this direction with another bag of food. She didn't follow because this garden is sparrow territory, but they know better than to mess with a nin bird."

Ed nodded slowly. He had sort of worked talking animals into his worldview. Of course, if rocks and trees started talking to him, he would know he had gone completely over the edge.

"I never did thank you for saving my life and my mission," the bird continued.

"Don't get all choked up about it. It wasn't even my idea," Ed said.

"Whether it was your decision or the voices in your head," the bird said. "I'm in your debt, and that is somewhere I should not be. So I'll give you something that will make us even."

_A bird that respects equivalent exchange_, Ed thought. _Who'd have guessed?_

"If this something is going to be regurgitated, I'd rather not have it," he said.

The bird puffed up and looked offended. "I just happened to overhear the village counselors express concern that your mechanical arm might not be safe in the hidden labs inside the West Gate office complex."

Ed's mouth dropped open. "They just said this right in front of you?"

"Quiet a few ninja arrived at the animal hospital after you left. I was taken almost immediately to the council to deliver my message, but I did hear a bit about you. On my way out of the building, I heard an old ninja say something about a one-armed, vandalous brat and moved closer out of curiosity, but I don't believe I was noticed. There are shinobi guarding it, of course."

"I'll burn that bridge when I get there," Ed said. "If this isn't some kind of trap, thank you."

"Don't mention it," the bird said. "To anyone. Ever."

Ed nodded. The bird bobbed its head and took off.

It didn't take him long to find the office complex. He transmuted a little spy room for himself in an apartment building across the street. It was a five-by-three box with a few narrow slits through the outer wall, through which he could watch for activity. If any of the tenants of the apartment complex noticed their laundry room had gotten a few feet narrower, they didn't say anything about it. Ed just had to be careful not to melt his way out of his new hideout when someone was washing their socks.

A few of the buildings on the first floor of the West Gate complex were occupied. There was a tax office and a shipping company. There were also a few empty offices with "available for lease" signs in the windows. That was pretty odd in a town in desperate need of…everything.

There was also a notable absence of foot traffic in the area. A few bored-looking office worker types went in and out, and around noon a woman with a catering cart went through. Ed didn't see any ninja running around on the walls, but he did see a few security cameras on the corners of the buildings.

He didn't think he could just casually walk in and scope it out. Even if he did have a good disguise, if it was a secret base there was probably an I.D. check and a password and all that other security crap competent militaries were so fond of. He supposed he could just sink the building, but that would make it very obvious that he was there, and he had no idea where he would even begin to look for his arm once he got in. And the building would probably be filled with ninja, and talking dogs, and all that other weird shit.

After a whole day and night of watching, he still had no ideas. He wracked his brain, but aside from assorted fantasies of blowing things up, or sneaking in dressed as a ninja, nothing came out. He just couldn't get his brain to work. Where was the inspiration? Getting his brain to work under these conditions was like pulling teeth! Or worse, drilling teeth with no anesthetic, like that crappy town in Vosville where he got that filling. They didn't have Novocaine, or laughing gas or even a frickin' ice pack…

_Oh_, Ed thought, surprising himself. _That might just work. Easy to make from common atmospheric components… Nitrous Oxide…_

_See, you shouldn't have been so mean to that dentist, he gave you a good idea_, the voice in his head said.

"Oh, give it rest," Ed muttered as he started designing the array. This would work for the office complex, but he'd need something to keep the rest of the village busy too. Another idea occurred to him and he laughed evilly. An old man in the next room dropped his laundry and fled in terror.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

**The West Gate Office Complex, sub level A…**

Mori Daichi was having a great morning, though he couldn't really figure out why. He was a week behind on his chemical analysis for the samples of poison they'd collected from corpses of leaf nin after the invasion. The hospital complained again about not having enough information to make antidotes with for "next time." Usually being rushed put him in a foul mood, but today his mood couldn't be better.

"Is somebody cooking something?" Daichi asked as he walked into the lab. "It smells really good in here!"

Abe Kuro looked up from his microscope and giggled. "Where would we cook something?"

Daichi grinned back. "We could cook something in the sample oven!"

They both looked over at the small metal box covered in wires and gauges. They both cracked up.

"I-it w-would have to be…one…one cookie…at…a…time!" Kuro said.

Daichi reached for a stool and knocked it over.

Kuro pointed at the stool and howled. The phone line from the sealed lab buzzed and on his third try, Kuro got it off the receiver and to his ear. Arai Tsukiko was in there in an environmental suit, working on an anoxic chemical project.

"Hey what's going on out there?" Tsukiko asked. "The lights are flickering."

"Ha-ha-ha, Tsukiko," Kuro gasped. "Daichi he …he knocked down his…ha-ha…chair! He knocked it over!"

"Kuro," Tsukiko said very slowly. "Is something wrong?"

"Ha-ha-ha…no…why?"

"Kuro, go press the emergency button," she said.

"Why?" he asked giggling.

"Just do it, ok? Right now."

"She wants me to press the alarm," Kuro said.

"Oh yeah, do it! It'll be great!" Daichi said.

Kuro stumbled to the panel, flipped open the safety glass and pressed the button.

CLICK!

Nothing happened. The alarms didn't go off. The ANBU didn't come running.

Kuro fell to the floor laughing.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Ibiki wondered briefly if he should use some interrogation techniques to move the meeting along. The counselors had already wasted thirty minutes talking about how short-staffed the village was, despite the fact that everyone already knew that. Village elder Danzo then wasted another quarter of an hour talking about how the academy should be restructured to improve the mentality of the younger generation. He finally shut up after the third reminder that this was a security meeting, and that education would be discussed after emergency measures were discontinued. And then Councilwoman Koharu Utatane started droning on about trade routes until she was reminded that this was a Village security meeting. Ibiki was seriously considering hooking someone up to alternating current when he was called to update them on the "Edward" situation.

He gave them the list of buildings repaired versus buildings destroyed. He gave a summary of the near-misses with assorted shinobi. He gave them the current plan to trap Edward Elric. They were pleased with none of it.

Danzo wanted to know how Elric had escaped in the first place, and why they hadn't issued kill-on-sight orders. Elder Izaki wanted to know why Elric was fixing some buildings and moving others. Councilman Homura wanted to know the current plan for defending the village from reconstruction. Ibiki took this as an opportunity to toss ANBU captain Rhino into the line of fire.

"We think we've figured out how he has been sinking the buildings," Rhino said. "The symbols he draws out around the civilian buildings he repaired apparently channel the energy he uses to reconstruct matter."

"But there were no drawings around the interrogation department, the Hokage tower, or the village wall!" Homura pointed out.

"There were," Rhino corrected. "They were underground."

"How'd he dig around so many secure buildings without alerting anyone? We've been preparing for an attack by Stone village using those same means."

"We have only theories, not proof, but it appears he is using his reconstruction abilities to make the arrays from a distant location. The changes to the substrate were made slowly enough not to trigger our alarms," Rhino said.

"Any idea how to counteract this?" Izaki asked.

"We could randomly disrupt the ground around secure installations. It's possible disrupting the arrays will keep the buildings where they are," Rhino said.

"That is a lot of resources to waste on an untested theory," Danzo said.

"We could continue to wait and hope for more information," Rhino said.

"I think it would be much more prudent to use our manpower to track down Elric. He doesn't seem to put much effort into hiding," Danzo said.

The elder looked like he was about to suggest something, but Ibiki's radio beeped, alerting him to a high-priority security breach. He and several others tuned in to the emergency channel.

"-five more buildings with 'you're going down' written on the side!" the dispatcher said. "We are evacuating civilians from the immediate area."

The dispatcher repeated the locations: a weapons depot, two councilmembers' houses, a lookout tower on top of the Hokage monument, and a radio communications center.

"Sir, should we implement the new procedures?" Cat said over Ibiki's own channel.

He was not usually the captain of an active ANBU squad, but with resources so spread out, they had been told to defer to him for all things Edward-related.

"It's on the hospital, too!" the dispatcher added shrilly.

"How many can he move at once?" asked Parrot.

"Sir! Should we start digging?" Cat asked again.

Ibiki pressed his fingers to the transmit button. "The hospital has been marked this time?" he asked.

"Confirmed!" the dispatcher said.

So either this was an escalation by Edward, moving on to civilian targets, or it was some kind of trick. It would take a lot of time and effort to implement Rhino's plan, and the buildings that had been marked were all over the village. Ibiki had a hunch about this sudden commotion from the bizarre fugitive.

"But none of the building have started to sink, correct?" he said.

"No sir, but the writing on the tower appeared an hour before it sank," Cat said.

"Then we may have an hour. Move any squads not on patrol to the West Gate office complex," Ibiki said. "Dispatch, tell the lab security to expect combat."

"You think it's a trick?" interrupted councilor Koharu, who was also listening in on the secure channel.

"He avoids situations that might result in harm to civilians," Ibiki said.

"You're willing to risk six more buildings?" Koharu asked.

"His behavior has been consistent," Ibiki said. "He's also made it obvious that he wants the arm back."

"How would he know where it is?" Homura asked.

"Sir, there is no response from the West Gate complex!" the dispatcher interrupted.

"I'm on site," another ANBU said. "The doors and windows are gone."

"Break in," Ibiki ordered, as he headed for the door.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Main power had gone out and they'd switched over to the generator, but after that… everything had gone wrong. Ono Hotaka rushed through the halls, stepping over twitching, giggling researchers. He was a chunin. His chakra control was good. He could hold his breath for at least 10 more minutes. He'd come across a few other ninja, but they were too wasted on the gas to focus their chakra. Apparently they hadn't noticed the smell until it was too late.

The security forces at the secret lab were not allowed to use short-range radios, because the signals might be picked up from the outside, so to call out, he had to go to the control center. That would not have been a problem in most circumstances, but today a lot of walls were not where they were supposed to be.

He got to the control center and snatched up the headset for the emergency radio. Panicked shouting made his ears sting.

"-report! Code Alpha, nine, four! Report!"

"Responding: code Gamma, eight, eight, zero," Hotaka said. "Reporting major compromise at the West Gate complex."

"The situation?" a cold grating voice demanded. Hotaka recognized the cadence of the master of torture and interrogation. He got a very cold feeling in his stomach.

"Sir, nine out of the twelve ninja in the complex are incapacitated-"

"The means?" Ibiki interrupted.

"Poison gas attack. It doesn't appear to be lethal, but it is fast-acting and seems to have affected most of our personnel. The majority of the researchers are compromised as well. The windows and doors are sealed, and the phone and outside power lines are cut off. I've not yet encountered enemy ninja, and have no information about the size or abilities of the attacking force."

"It is not an enemy nin," Ibiki said. "It's Edward Elric. He's there for a mechanical arm we confiscated. Do you know which lab it's in?"

"No sir," Hotaka said. "I don't have project clearance."

There was a shuffling and cursing as a list was acquired. "It's in level C, section fifteen. There are 8 labs in there: I don't have the exact location. Get there and stop Elric by any means necessary. We want him alive if possible, but don't let him escape. We will assist as soon as we can get inside."

"Yes sir."

Hotaka left the radio and rushed towards the stairs. He had a very bad feeling about this.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

"Just think for a second," Ed said to the guy in the lab coat. "Where did you see the metal arm?"

"It…it…we should…get it…and…ha-ha-ha…scare Nobu. We could…ha-ha…walk up behind him…and tap him on the shoulder!" he said, cracking up and flopping around on the ground.

"Good idea!" Ed said, adjusting the oxygen mask strapped to his face. "Tell me where the arm is and I'll go get it."

"It's on level C, in room E5," the researcher said. "This is going to be great."

"Yeah, right," Ed said.

He rushed to the staircase, leaving the giggling man on the floor. He checked his oxygen tank. It seemed to be working out pretty well for something he'd transmuted from a garbage can and a bicycle tire. He had twenty more minutes of air, but a ninja could drop in on him at any moment. He'd only come across one so far, but that guy had been looped out on laughing gas. He'd made a clumsy grab at Ed, but even hauling the tank, Ed was fast enough to dodge around him.

He got to level C and slammed the door. He scribbled out an array and sealed up the stairway. He checked his tank again. He didn't think the concentration in the lab was enough to permanently fry his brain, but he couldn't risk passing out.

There was a guy lying on the floor smiling, but he didn't bother Ed as he walked past to door E. Another array popped it open with ease.

And there it was, right in the middle of the room on a stand. He rushed in. The panel on the forearm was open, and they had a bunch of wires clamped to the nerve input. The fingers of his automail were twitching in sequence. Seeing that made him incredibly mad. He wanted to go back into the hall and kick that scientist a few times.

He supposed it would've been worse to see his flesh and blood arm hooked up and twitching under someone else's control, (which he had on a couple of occasions), but he couldn't stop his fist from clenching. His muttered curses fogged up the inside of his oxygen mask.

Ed paused for a moment to clear his head. He didn't have time to pitch a fit. He found a screwdriver, and after a quick check he closed it up. He pulled off the rest of their equipment. It didn't look like they broke anything. (Actually, it looked like they had cleaned some of the gunk out of the joints.) He thought for a moment. If he reconnected his arm now, the pain and shock might leave him vulnerable to attack while trying to escape. Of course, if he had both arms, he wouldn't need to draw everything out for complicated transmutations.

_Screw it_, he thought, _I've got time. They're probably still trying to figure out which building I'm gonna sink_.

He forgot entirely that he hadn't even closed the last door.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

The boy didn't look like much. He was short and skinny and sweating. He didn't seem to notice Hotaka as he slipped in the open door. He seemed entirely focused on figuring out how to take off his shirt without disturbing the oxygen mask and tank he wore. Apparently giving up in frustration, the short blond touched his left hand to his shirt and it fell apart in a cloud of ashes and purple sparks. He pulled the metal arm down from a stand on a table and inspected the end.

Hotaka paused for a moment, a bit disturbed by the metal lumps and plates bolted and sunk into the boy's right side to make an artificial shoulder. But it was only for a moment. He slipped a kunai from his weapons pouch and threw it. The blade sliced through the hose feeding into the mask and came to a stop sticking out of the table.

The boy cursed and ducked, clutching the arm to his chest. He rolled under the table to avoid Hotaka's follow-up attack, just managing to dodge an ax kick to the head.

Hotaka kicked the table away and kicked at the boy's head again. The boy threw himself out of the way just in time and flipped around on the floor kicking at Hotaka's supporting leg. Hotaka jumped up over the sweep, but while he was in the air, he saw the boy had scribbled out a circle design on the floor. His fingers were at the edge of it, waiting for the ninja to land.

Hotaka stretched up. He hadn't jumped that high, but he managed to touch his hand to the ceiling and stick himself to it with chakra. He thought he'd avoided a trap, but the array lit up and the floor under the boy dissolved. He and the metal arm dropped through the hole.

The building shuttered and he realized the ANBU must have broken through.

The room below was dark, but he could hear the hiss of the air tank. His eyes adjusted quickly. The tank had been abandoned in the center of the floor. They said the alchemist had no to chakra control. He should be under the effects of his own poison by now.

A flash of light caught Hotaka's eye and he whirled, throwing a kunai.

CLANG!

The blade had bounced off the boy's metal shoulder as he dove through another hole, this one in the wall. He charged after him. The edges of the hole sparkled and it began to heal up. Hotaka charged, pumping chakra into his legs. He scraped his shin on the edge as he leapt through, and rolled across the floor. A metal foot struck the side of his head.

Hotaka dodged the following kick. His head spun and for a moment he lost control of the layer of chakra that was keeping his lungs clear. He took a breath and realized the air in this room was mostly clean.

The boy punched Hotaka in the side, but it wasn't much of a blow. He caught the boy's wrist and went to strike his neck with his free hand, but the boy's foot snapped up into Hotaka's wrist and knocked his hand away.

The boy twisted the arm in Hotaka's grip and though he couldn't pull free, he managed to grab the ninja's forearm. There was a spark of purplish light where the boy's palm touched his skin, and then there was blood everywhere.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

It was a struggle not to take the guy's arm off. With his head spinning and the sleepy stupid euphoria of the gas sinking in, Ed could barely keep his own flesh and blood out of the reaction.

The line of deconstruction was as narrow and shallow as Ed could make it, but he still ended up halfway through the bone. Blood sprayed them both.

Ed pulled his left arm free from the ninja's useless right hand. But the ninja wasn't out of it for long. Ed tried to knock the guy out with a temple strike, but his opponent was now obviously very determined not to let Ed's hands get near him. Before Ed could step back, the ninja's sandaled foot snapped up into his chest. Ed was flung back across the room. He slammed to a stop against a cabinet, denting in the thin metal door.

Ed struggled to breathe in, to get his arm and legs moving. He'd dropped his arm and now it was a world away on the other side of the room. The ninja was carefully stalking towards him, his face pale from blood loss. He should've been bandaging up his arm before he bled to death, but no, the jerk just kept coming after him.

Ed pulled himself up, and reached into his back pocket for an array he'd sketched out beforehand. He was careful not to touch the design with his bloody fingers.

The ninja saw the danger and charged. Ed threw himself to the side, but the ninja was a blur of motion. The blow was aimed at his neck, but Ed managed to twist at the last second and the ninja's fist struck his shoulder instead. Ed kicked out and his foot connected with the ninja's knee, knocking his supporting leg out of under him. The ninja managed to turn the fall into a tackle and bore Ed to the floor. The array fluttered out of his hand as his elbow struck the tile floor.

A sharp blow to the jaw caused the world to white out for a moment. It came back just in time for Ed to see the fist coming at his face again. Ed tried to bring up his left arm to block the attack, but realized the ninja had his left forearm pinned down with a knee. He tried to roll his head with the punch, but really only managed to sprain the hell out of his own neck.

"Damn it," the ninja muttered. "You got metal plating in your head, too?"

Ed could tell from the slightly glazed look in the man's eyes that he just wanted this to be over. The injured ninja's arm was still spurting blood over them both. Ed kicked his feet, but couldn't dislodge his captor. He could smell the gas leaking back into this part of the building. The ninja finally gave up on beating Ed unconscious and pressed his fingers hard against Ed's throat. Apparently trying to press in the arteries and make him pass out. Ed kicked and struggled, but the room started to go dark.

He kicked his feet, and thought he heard the sound of paper crinkling under his shoe. He hoped it was the array. He focused on it, mind picturing the array that he hoped was under his foot. He'd never had much luck focusing through anything but his hands, but since that array was already drawn, he didn't need symmetrical recirculation to make it work.

Light flashed behind the ninja and the floor reformed. The ninja started to turn, bringing up his crippled arm to block, but he wasn't strong enough to counteract the tile and concrete fist that shot up and clocked him. He was knocked away from Ed, and rolled to a stop against the wall, clutching his broken nose with his working hand.

Ed rolled over and used the blood that was everywhere to scribble out an array. The floor moved again. The ninja leapt up and tried to dodge, but the moving floor grew upwards, catching his feet. It pulled him down and flowed over him, sealing him into the concrete with just his head, shoulders, and injured arm sticking out. The ninja struggled against his bonds, and then slumped when he realized he couldn't break free.

Ed got to his hands and knees and crawled over to his prisoner. The guy's feet were probably sticking through on a lower floor. Ed laughed at the idea, and couldn't seem to make himself stop.

He pulled the leaf headband off the ninja, and popped the metal plate off it. He used the cloth to make a pressure bandage for the guy's arm. It was tricky with only one hand, a spinning head, and a bad case of the giggles, but eventually he got it in place.

He was just getting to his feet when the floor shook, indicating the other leaf nin had blasted their way on to a floor very near him. Ed trotted over to his automail and picked it up. He seriously considered just finding a place to lie down. His injuries weren't bothering him so much anymore. He was very dizzy but his head barely hurt at all. Then he looked at the ninja sunk halfway through the floor, and realized it would probably not be a good idea.

After three misfires, he managed to transmute a hole in the wall, and started the second part of his plan: escaping the village.

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They were too late, again.

The ANBU had gotten very close, but Elric had prepared well for this. There were multiple tunnels leading to and from the building, looping back and crossing each other in a frustrating maze. The gas was in the tunnels too, and was making it impossible for the trackers to follow Edward by scent.

"How'd he know it was here?" one researcher asked as Ibiki walked by. "Nobody here leaked that info. Nobody who knows about it has left the building for three days."

Ibiki frowned. That was a big problem. He couldn't think of anyone who would even consider telling Elric where his arm was, aside from Maito Gai, and they never told Gai where it was kept. Many members of the council knew about the arm. One of them had probably let it slip to a servant or a grocer, or some other civilian Edward had built a house for. He supposed that was one more thing they'd have to wring out of Edward if they ever got their hands on him.

Ibiki had sent extra security to guard the watch and notebooks they had taken off of Edward but as of yet the boy hadn't come for them. Were they simply not worth the risk to him, or was he waiting for the fervor to die down?

The boy had told Anko he intended to get as far away from them as possible. He wondered if he was out of the village already. The ninja checking for new seismic activity hadn't found anything. It might actually be easier to find Edward in the woods than in the village, since there were less structures to hide in, and definitely fewer civilians to blend in with. A squad of hunter nin might be able to catch him before he arrived at the next nearest village, if that was where he was heading.

Ibiki wondered who the hell they had available to send after him.

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**Author's Note: **I know a lot of the stuff I said about laughing gas is not entirely accurate. Please suspend your disbelief! Sorry this chapter took forever. Something about it is still bugging me, but I can't figure out what the problem is. Blah! Chapter 10 is almost done, so that should be up in the first week of December. Don't forget to review!


	10. Chapter 10

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 10**

**Konoha** **Movie Theater Storage Room…**

Ed gritted his teeth as he pulled the arm into place. He'd had to make a rack to hold it in position, since there was no helpful second pair of hands around. He checked one last time in the mirror, gritting his teeth. Reconnecting his nervous system to his automail always left him in a temporary state of shock. If any ninja came upon him in the next few minutes, he'd be almost helpless. Of course the same thing was possible every time he slept.

This felt more ominous though, and he knew why. If the leaf ninja had done something to his automail while they were trying to figure out how it worked, Ed probably wouldn't be able to fix it. He couldn't put this off forever though.

"Alright…one…two…three…" he mumbled as he tightened the last bolt into place.

CLANK!

He was just thinking _It_ _never clanked when Winry did it_, when the world went white. Ed did his best not to flail as his brain told him that the right side of his body was on fire. His teeth clenched and sweat poured down his face. He focused, flexing his automail arm and moving each finger to make sure they still worked. The metal limb was stiff and slow, but it loosened up. When he was sure he had full range of motion, he picked up the wrench and screw drivers he had transmuted and tightened everything down.

Putting his arm back on left him feeling more exhausted than the whole effort to steal it back. He gave the cover plates one last once over and turned out the lights. He lay down on the bed that had once been broken theater seats. He'd transmuted a pretty comfy hideout for himself in a neglected back room in the movie theater. There was even a bathroom one floor up. He figured the heavy foot traffic and horrible burned popcorn smell would throw them off his trail. The only downside was the noise.

He could hear the end theme of the movie playing and people cheering. Did they think the actor could hear them or something?

Ed gritted his teeth and rolled over. His whole right side was tingling and twitching. He didn't remember the shock and muscle tremors ever lasting this long before. They must have broken something, or twisted something when they took his automail off.

"Bastards," he muttered, rolling over again.

He tried to picture a way to get them back. What kind of stunt could he pull that would affect only their military?

_I could burn down the ugly sandal factory. That would show those crazy toe exhibitionists. _

Of course he didn't want to waste a lot of time carrying out this theoretical revenge. He'd already gathered or transmuted the stuff he thought he'd need once he escaped the village. He could leave anytime, but he wanted to get some rest first.

He considered looking for his watch and his notebooks, but he didn't really need either of them. The things he'd written he could re-write, and the leaf jerks had no chance of understanding his native language, much less figuring out his coded note books. The watch though…

_Maybe I can finally let the damn thing go…_

He still couldn't sleep. After another half hour he gave up and got up. He could hear the movie starting again, and decided to see what everyone couldn't stop laughing at.

He transmuted his clothes, with a simple clap of his hands, and grinned a little at that. He ended up in a high collared coat (that sort of covered the bruise on his jaw), slacks, and a watch-cap that hid his hair. As an afterthought he picked up a couple of cracked projector lenses and transmuted a pair of glasses. They were as geeky as he could make them, recalling the pair Sheska, the living library had worn, years ago in central.

Confident in his disguise he listened by the wall for a moment before transmuting a hole. There was no one in the corridor, so he closed up the wall and walked toward the theater. The large room was already dark, but only about a quarter full. Ed found a seat near the back and slumped down.

He had survived about half the awful film when he noticed an old man two rows ahead was turning around to sneak looks at him. Ed pulled his collar up a little more, and tried to sink further into his seat. He didn't wasn't to have to run just yet, though he was starting to admit to himself that sneaking into the movies while he was the subject of a massive man hunt was not his greatest idea.

The old man got up and set about stepping on toes and bumping knees as he worked his way out to the isle. It wasn't exactly a stealthy exit. Ed sighed. It was possible the old guy was just on his way to the bathroom.

_He's probably going to get the ninja. You don't want to get caught just because you're lazy_, the voice in his head scolded.

Ed huffed again, and was really about to consider getting up and running for it when the old man came back. He was carrying a soda cup. Ed was all ready to dismiss his paranoia when he noticed the old man wasn't going back to his original seat. He was coming up the isle toward Ed. The ice in his soda cup sloshed and clinked and half a dozen voices hissed shhhhhhhh! as the old man continued on his rattling course. He shuffled into Ed's row, and dropped into the seat next to him.

He held out the soda.

"Do I know you mister?" Ed asked quietly.

"Eh? No," the old man said, not quite managing a whisper.

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" a half dozen people hissed, much louder than the offending words could have been.

The old man shushed back at them, before turning once again to Ed. "I don't know you, I just thought you might want something cold to put on that bruise," the old man concluded, waving the soda towards the bruised half of Ed's face. Ed could see dark liquid sloshing against the inside of the plastic lid. Ed took the cup from the old man, though it was mostly to keep him from dumping cola into Ed's automail.

"You could see it from down there?" Ed asked.

"A quarter of your face is swelled up and purple, son," the old man said.

"Oh," Ed said. "Thanks."

"Trouble at home?" the old man asked.

Ed was a little surprised by the question. Apparently he'd run into a ninja village social worker, or maybe just a busy body.

_Or maybe he's just being nice, _the voice that sounded like Al said_._

_You wanted me to run away from him remember? _Ed thought.

Out loud Ed said "What makes you think that?"

"Why else would a kid your age be hiding out in a movie theater this late at night?" the old man said.

Ed considered asking what age the old man thought he was, but decided against it. He didn't really need any more aggravation.

"I don't have that kind of problem, mister. I live on my own," Ed said.

"Then what happened to you?"

"There's some guy in my apartment complex I don't get along with. They live between me and the stairs. We had a disagreement earlier this evening, so I'm killing some time before going back. They have to sleep sometime right?" Ed said.

"Why don't you report them to village security?" the old man said. "We don't stand for that kind of thing around here, even if things are a bit tight!"

"It's no big deal, mister," Ed said.

The old man sighed. "Well that's your business son. I was young once. I know what it's like to think you've got to tough it out on your own, but you don't."

The old man took a pencil and paper out of his pocket and wrote out an address. He held it out until Ed took it.

**Leaf Youth Center**

**1257 North Gate Ave**

"Even with all the chaos, we're still open. You need somewhere to stay, or someone to talk to, somebody is always there," the old man said.

"Thanks mister," Ed said, trying to sound sincere.

The old man patted his arm and stood up. On slightly unsteady legs, the old man went back to his old seat, stumbling across another half dozen unhappy movie goers. Ed slumped further down in his own seat, wondering how pathetic he must look. He pressed the icy cup to his face, and after a few minutes his jaw went numb.

_Stupid do-gooders_, Ed thought to himself, _They're making_ _it hard to think about trashing their village_.

Ed sat through the rest of the movie, and waited for the old guy to leave before he got up and snuck back to his hidden room in the theater.

The next morning he transmuted a tunnel, and left Konoha behind him.

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**48 hours later….**

The crazy woman sat behind the desk with her feet up on the table. She didn't bother to cross her legs, an obvious act of daring with a skirt that short. Kiba, of course, knew it was some kind of trick and refused to be trapped. Shino didn't seem to care. Hinata just looked at the floor, embarrassed. All three of them would've preferred to find Umino Iruka handing out missions that day. All three of them also wished their sensei was not on another mission.

"Your target is Edward Elric. We haven't exactly got a rank for him, since he isn't a ninja. The mission is B rank. He's probably left the village by now, since nothing's been moved around lately. He seems to like kids and small animals, so we decided your team would be perfect for the job. Also, everyone more competent is busy. Here's the mission scroll--everything else should be in there. One more thing: the council doesn't want him falling into enemy hands, so if it looks like somebody else is going to get him-"

She paused to draw her hand across her throat and make a gargling sound.

"-make sure there's nothing to get. Any questions? No? Good," Anko said.

She stood up and prepared to march away when she saw Hinata was raising her hand.

"This isn't the academy," Anko growled, causing the girl to flinch back. "You don't raise your hand. If you want to say something, you say it! So? What do you want to say?!"

"I….I…" she said, twitching.

"Spit it out already!" Anko demanded.

"I…uh…never mind," the girl said, ducking her head.

"Anyone ever tell you you're a waste of skin?" Anko asked.

Hinata nodded.

"Hey, I got a question!" Kiba shouted at the special jonin. "Why are you such a bitter old hag?!"

Akamaru barked in agreement from his perch on Kiba's head. Kiba had been really excited about their first unsupervised mission, but this nut job was taking all the fun out of it. Hinata was already pretty nervous about leaving the village without Kurenai sensei to supervise them; they couldn't afford for her to have a breakdown now.

"Who you calling old, dog breath?!" the psychotic jonin demanded.

"You see any other old ladies in this room?" Kiba said.

"Perhaps you two can finish your discussion after the mission," Shino said in a monotone as he held out his hand for the mission scroll.

Anko handed it over, though she never took her eyes off Kiba. "We'll settle up later, dog boy."

"I'd like to see you try!" Kiba growled.

Anko smirked and walked out. "Don't screw up!" she called before vanishing.

"That screwball says not to screw up!" Kiba said, making an obscene gesture at the doorway. "So you guys ready to go?"

"Perhaps you should see a med-nin first," Shino said.

"What?" Kiba asked. He looked over at Hinata who was turning red and looked ready to faint. "What?" he demanded again.

"H-he's n-n-not hurt," she said. "Th-th-they're stuck in his…uh…armor."

Shino nodded. "Still, Kiba, you may wish to remove those before we set out."

Kiba finally looked down, and felt the blood drain from his face. A half dozen senbon needles stuck out of his pants along the front seam. The dog on his head whined.

"You said it, Akamaru," he muttered.

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Team 8 went to the veterinary clinic so Kiba and Akamaru could sample Elric's scent. Kenta, the old nin-dog who was standing guard at the clinic, identified it for them. They didn't have a direct trail to follow from there, but Kiba was pretty sure they could identify the target. Kiba wandered the streets for a while, as his teammates followed along.

As they went, Shino read off the target's known jutsu and skills. Apparently Edward Elric could use something like fire jutsu, and something like earth jutsu that didn't require any chakra. He could also dissolve your clothes or flesh with a weird tattoo on his palm. His taijustu was estimated to be about mid-genin level, though he couldn't add chakra to any of it. He was also immune to genjutsu.

The profile and history given on the scroll left much to be desired. It said their target had aided a leaf ninja in a fight and had been injured, but had to be confined for security reasons, and subsequently escaped and engaged in acts of vandalism. It also said he had stolen a mechanical arm from a secure research department.

Kiba didn't know why they were being so cryptic. Everybody had noticed the Hokage Tower sinking and the handprints on the Village wall were hard to miss. He'd heard from Choji about the Elric kid ditching that crazy green Jonin, Gai, and the dog at the clinic told them all about Elric rescuing an injured bird. And Hinata had heard from Ino, involuntarily, that Uchiha "I'm so great" Sasuke had tried to jump Elric and got toasted. Kiba had spent a few hours looking for the overly angsty showoff, but Uchiha hadn't been at any of his usual training grounds. He was obviously hiding, but Kiba wasn't quite bold enough to go knock on the other boy's door just to see if he really did get his eyebrows burned off.

Kiba found old traces of Elric all over the village, but trails vanished into the sides of buildings or into random spots in the ground. It was completely frustrating. There were no fresh trails, so the security forces were probably right about Elric leaving the village. Hinata got even more nervous as they left the village gates to continue their search. The mission scroll said they could spend a week looking, but if they didn't find the trail in that time, they were to come back for new assignments, and the search would be turned into a general alert for the border patrols. Kiba was determined not to let it end that way, though.

The forest around the village was humid, and to Kiba it still reeked of the recent war. He could smell blood and faint whiffs of poisons and scorched cloth and flesh. They came across broken swords and abandoned shuriken, already rusting in the damp forest humus. Hinata also found a few bodies the cleanup crews had missed.

It took an entire day for them to find the place where their target had surfaced, a quarter mile outside the village wall. The boy wasn't completely oblivious in the woods. He had tried to avoid bending branches and leaving an obvious trail, but he hadn't done anything about the machine oil and sweat smells that had sunk into the ground behind him. The trail was two days old and fading fast, but it was definitely the target's. They radioed their coordinates in to the village logistics office, and then set out.

Kiba and Akamaru had to run along the ground to keep track of the scent. Their target was moving at a civilian pace, but he was at least a little clever. Whenever they came to a stream they had to track up and down the bank, trying to find the place where he'd come out of the water. Several times their target had gone underground. The target had collapsed the tunnels after himself, but Shino's bugs had been able to keep track of the disturbed soil. It took all night and most of the following morning to catch up.

"He passed by here less than three hours ago," Kiba said. "And he's exhausted."

"Have you considered how we will deal with him when we catch up?" Shino asked. "He is immune to genjutsu, but none of us are overly dependent on that. He has numerous earth jutsu equivalents and a fire jutsu equivalent that incapacitated Uchiha Sasuke."

"So we set a trap for him," Kiba said. "We catch up, get a little ahead, and set up a few snares and wire nets."

"I would have suggested the same thing if not for the target's well-documented ability to alter his environment," Shino said. "As the mission scroll stated, he is immune to all forms of genjutsu, which would make concealing a trap somewhat difficult."

"So we just need a really good trap," Kiba said.

"M-m-maybe we should just track him until he goes to sleep?" Hinata said.

"That's so boring," Kiba said.

"But probably for the best," Shino said.

Kiba grumbled to Akamaru as they kept searching, his teammates following silently behind. The trail came to a stop in front of a large tree. Kiba and his dog circled the base of it. Elric had stopped here, and hadn't touched the ground again. The bark of the tree was unmarked, but the scent trail indicated their target had ascended.

Kiba waved Hinata over, indicating she should use her Byakugan to scan the canopy. The veins on her face bulged and her head moved slowly back and forth as she looked over every branch. She shook her head. Kiba waved a hand, indicating she should look again. She looked him in the face, her eyes still bulging. She started to say something, probably an apology, when her mouth dropped open in surprise. Kiba whirled, looking behind him. All he saw was the tree. She waved for her teammates to follow her and they retreated a few dozen yards, still keeping the tree in sight.

"He's inside the tree," Hinata whispered. "It's hollow inside. I'm not sure how he's getting air, but he is breathing normally, and appears to be asleep."

"So we break in and drag him out," Kiba hissed.

"Breaking our way in will no doubt awaken him," Shino said.

"So have your bugs chew their way in and drain his chakra," Kiba said.

"I would rather not risk sending my allies into an enclosed space with a fire user," Shino said.

"He probably won't start a fire while he's in there, too," Kiba said.

"And Anko s-said he likes animals," Hinata said.

"I have noted that my allies do not invoke the emotional response that fuzzy and cute animals do," Shino said.

Shino's teammates looked at him, nonplussed.

"Fuzzy and cute?" Kiba asked, snorting. "So you don't think your bugs are cute?"

Shino adjusted his glasses in an offended manner. "My allies are both fascinating and endearing, but in most cases they fail to provoke the solicitous and maternal reactions that warm-blooded-"

"Alright already!" Kiba said. "We get it, you love your bugs! So do we just wait for him to come out? He could stay in there all night."

"Patience is important in our profession," Shino said.

"So's efficiency," Kiba said. "We should lure him out if we don't want to dig our way in."

"How exactly do you propose we do that?" Shino asked.

"We need some bait," Kiba said, looking at Hinata and grinning.

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Ed woke with a start. He thought he'd heard a scream.

It was dark and cramped and it took him a long moment to remember where he was. His flesh-and-blood hand brushed the surface he was leaning against; rough, warm and slightly grainy, it was transmuted wood. He remembered now. He had hollowed out a tree to hide inside, after running across tiger tracks in the late morning light. Maybe they hadn't been tiger tracks. They could've been from a lion. Or a giant house cat. The point was Ed's brain was still foggy. He couldn't have been asleep very long.

He shifted around in the hollowed-out tree, holding his breath and straining his ears. He'd left a lot of nearly-microscopic holes when he'd closed up the tree behind him to let air in, but they weren't clustered and didn't transmit sound very well. He clapped his hands and opened the holes a little wider. He thought he heard a distant rumble, the earth settling. He was about to lay down again when he heard the howl.

It was high and shrill and definitely a canine. The howl was followed by yapping, whining, and then another howl. He sighed, wondering what was bothering the stupid dog. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, he wondered where the dog had come from. It didn't sound very big. He'd tried not to run right to any town, but he was hoping to disappear into a crowd sooner or later. He'd been in the woods four days already, and could benefit from a hotel with a shower.

He pressed his hands together and transmuted a hole in the side of the tree, this time big enough to see out of. It was still daytime, and a little bit cloudy. There was no sign of ninja around, but he doubted they'd just be standing right in front of his tree if they knew he was in there. He opened up the side and crawled out, tense, with his hands close together, ready to transmute.

Nothing jumped at him.

He left his bag in the tree and climbed out, stumbling a little as he landed on the spongy ground. His legs still weren't entirely awake. The yapping and howling continued, and he walked towards it.

The little white dog was running back and forth along the edge of a ravine, yapping and howling and otherwise freaking out as much as a dog could. It noticed Ed and ran around him in a circle, yapping and jumping.

"You aren't a talking ninja dog, are you?" he asked it.

The dog just kept running and yapping. He supposed that meant no. He walked to the edge of the ravine to see what it was barking at. He almost tripped on the stupid little mutt twice before he got to the edge. The soil was crumbling and wet and he saw the edge was still falling away. He got down on his hands and knees and looked over the side.

There was a girl at the bottom. She had short blue-black hair with really weird-looking bangs and sunglasses. Her clothes looked like pretty standard hiking gear, except she was wearing sandals instead of proper boots. She was struggling to get to her feet amidst the loose soil and rocks.

"Are you alright?" Ed called.

The girl flinched.

"W-who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Sig Curtis, nice to meet you," Ed said. "Are you hurt?"

"N-n-no," she said. "I-i-i-is my d-d-dog alright?"

"Your dog is fine," Ed called down, leaning over the edge. The girl didn't look too banged up, though he could see some dirt and scrapes on her hands and knees. Her head was moving oddly when she tilted it back to face him.

"I-i-is it very high up?" she asked, hands reaching out to touch the base of the still-crumbling cliff. She reached her arms up and leaned forward, as if she expected to reach Ed, who was twenty feet above her head. He could see his face reflected in her black glasses.

"Are you blind?" Ed demanded.

"Y-yes?" she answered.

"Who the hell lets a blind kid go wandering around the woods alone?" he demanded.

The girl flinched and sort of shrunk in on herself.

"I'm…I'm sorry," she said cringing.

Ed wanted to pull out some hair. Why was everyone in the entire universe so damned stupid?

"Stay put, ok?" he called. "I'm coming down there."

"Oh…you don't have to bother," the girl said.

"It's no bother," Ed said through gritted teeth.

He walked a few dozen yards further along the edge to avoid sending another rockslide down on the girl, and then clapped his hands. The dirt and rocks glowed and reformed into a staircase, and the little dog was running down them before the glow of the reaction had even started to fade. Ed sighed and trudged down after it. He scrambled over to the girl, who now had the dog in her lap and was hanging onto it with a death grip that made the little animal whimper.

"Can you stand up?" Ed asked. "Over this way it's not too steep."

The girl nodded and tried to stand, but overbalanced, and since her arms were busy holding the dog, she landed ungracefully on her butt. Ed was starting to feel very annoyed.

"Alright, put the dog down, and give me your arm," he ordered.

She obeyed and he pulled her to her feet.

"Is your house near here?" he asked as he half-helped, half-dragged her towards the steps he had made.

"I…I think so. I w-was just going to my aunt's house. She lives by the village, but…there's no-" she paused to gulp nervously. "There's nothing to fall into between here and there. I think I got turned around."

"Don't you have a cane or something?" Ed asked.

"No," the girl said. "I usually just follow my dog."

"Maybe your dog needs a cane," he muttered.

The dog growled as if it understood him. Ed made a face at it.

"So are there any landmarks or anything I should be looking for?" Ed asked.

"The road is around here somewhere. If you c-could get me th-there I…I think I can find my way back on my own," the girl said.

"Or you'll fall into another ditch, break both your legs, and get eaten by bears, so just try to describe the way back to your house so we can both get on with our day."

The little dog started barking and growling at something in the undergrowth.

"I just had to jinx the hell out of us by saying **bears**, didn't I?" Ed said.

"I think I hear something over there," the girl said, pointing.

Ed turned to look. There was a dark shape moving in the brush. It was too small to be a bear. Maybe it was a wolf or a lion. Of course, now he was wishing it was a bear, because those were easier to scare off.

"Stay still for a second," Ed told the girl.

He let go of her arm and pressed his hands together. He was bending down to touch the ground and transmute a spear when the girl stumbled against him and caught her balance by grabbing his shoulder and neck. He was about to ask her if it was "stay" or "still" that she didn't understand when a sharp electric pain shot through his neck and the world went dark.

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"Well that has to have been the easiest B-rank mission ever," Kiba said, as he pushed his way out of the undergrowth.

"The mission is not complete until we have surrendered him to Ibiki's custody," Shino corrected.

"Duh," Kiba said as he bent down to pick up his dog.

Shino walked over to the girl to reclaim his sunglasses, and gave her back her weapons pouches and headband. Kiba went to fetch the things out of the still-open hollow tree. There was a messenger bag with a water bottle and some basic supplies.

He got back to the group and found Hinata still busily going through their prisoner's pockets. Kiba had wondered if she had it in her to attack someone who was offering her help. For a moment back there he thought he or Shino would have to step in, and Hinata might have become a hostage instead of a hitman.

"Hey Hinata, are you almost done?" Kiba asked.

"N-not yet," she answered.

Kiba stalked over to speed things along. He suppressed the urge to growl when he saw that she hadn't even started tying the prisoner up, yet. Instead, she was trying to clean the dirt off the unconscious boy's face.

"He's going to prison, not a beauty pageant," Kiba said.

Hinata ducked her head. "I know…it's just that if I'd caught him when I knocked him out he…he wouldn't have fallen in the dirt…"

Kiba sighed, rolled the prisoner back over, and started binding his arms with wire. Mission scroll had warned them not to let Elric touch anything with the marks on his hands, so Kiba twisted the teenager's palms out and tied each of his fingers to a loop of wire around his waist. As long as they didn't set him down on his back, he wouldn't be able to touch anything. Kiba then bound the prisoner's knees and ankles with wire and added a blindfold and gag to be on the safe side. He waited for Shino to volunteer to carry the prisoner since all he had contributed to the mission so far was sunglasses. He didn't, though.

Rather than arguing, Kiba picked up the prisoner. Why waste time arguing, when they could be picking up B-rank pay. He hopped into the trees thinking of all the dog treats he could buy with that money. His teammates hurried after him. If they ran full-out they could probably make it back to the village before midnight. Akamaru yipped happily, sensing his master's good mood. For the next hour, Kiba couldn't keep the grin off his face. But then Hinata went and said it.

"I think somebody is following us."

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Ed knew a lot was wrong when he became aware of the shoulder digging into his stomach. The world was tilting and twisting and his head spun as he tried to get his bearings. He tried to move, but his arms were bound. The blindfold and the gag confused him for a moment, but there was nothing wrong with his hearing.

"He's awake," a young male voice growled.

His captor's grip tightened and sharp fingernails dug into the back of his leg.

"They're gaining on us," a girl said.

Ed realized a moment later that he recognized the voice. It was the blind girl. The world tilted sharply and Ed's stomach jumped into his throat as his captor jumped off of something. The shoulder dug into his gut as they landed, and Ed focused all his will on not puking against the gag in his mouth.

"We will either have to stop and fight, or drop our prisoner," a monotonous voice advised. "We will not be able to outrun them thus burdened."

"Thus burdened?" the one carrying Ed growled. "Who's carrying the little bastard?"

Ed did his best to cause injury to the growling one, but he was tied too tightly.

"I was using general terms," Monotone replied. "We must arrive at consensus soon. Do we fight, or abandon the mission according to the guidelines given in the mission scroll?"

The shoulder dug in again as his captors leapt up.

"I would point out," Monotone continued, "That the eight unknown ninja pursuing us all have chakra signatures in the chunin range."

"You want to cut and run?" Ed's captor demanded. "Screw that! I ain't fxxking up my first B-rank!"

"I would not lightly abandon our mission either, but neither would I see us slaughtered," Monotone said.

"You know what cutting out means!" the growling boy declared. "That psycho-bitch said kill him if we can't keep him!"

"I do understand the ramifications of our orders, Kiba," Monotone replied. "My allies could complete the task painlessly. Alternately, I could stay behind and distract our pursuers. Hinata could rush ahead and summon assistance, and you could proceed without losing the prisoner."

"You may think you're hot shit, Shino, but just 'cause you made it to the finals doesn't mean you have a chance in hell of taking out eight chunin on your own!" Kiba said.

Ed wondered if Shino was Monotone's name or some sort of obscene adverb he hadn't learned yet.

"Splitting up is not the best option," Shino said. "But it is the course of action most likely to allow us to complete the mission."

"They could just split up, too," Kiba said. "They still outnumber us two to one."

"Two-and-two-thirds to one," Shino corrected.

"I'm counting Akamaru!" Kiba said.

A dog yipped.

"I s-s-say we all s-s-stop and fight," the blind girl, Hinata said, though it sounded more like a question than a declaration.

"Me and Akamaru say fight, too," Kiba said.

"I concur," Shino said.

"So w-what do we do with Edward?" Hinata asked.

"We can drop him over there," Kiba said.

Ed wondered what was over there, but that thought was scared right out of his head when he discovered they literally meant drop. It was a long way down.

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**Author's note:**Yeah I know, a little shorter than usual. I'm still kind of debating whether to make Ed able to see through the "art of transformation". Nobody seems to agree about it being either gen- or nin- jutsu. Sigh, so complicated. Don't forget to review!


	11. Chapter 11

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 11**

Ed wasn't sure how long he had been lying there trying to breathe. The fall hadn't hurt that badly, but the breath had been knocked out of him and he was still struggling to get it back. The gag wasn't helping.

He could hear shouts and explosions nearby, but it wasn't right on top of him. It seemed to Ed like a very good time to start escaping. He rubbed his head against the ground until the blindfold rolled up. There was nobody around as far as he could see, which wasn't far due to the heavy undergrowth he had landed in.

He flinched as another blast of sound shook the forest, knocking leaves and not-so-small branches down around him. They'd tied his hands too well for him to touch the wires that bound him, but his ankles were only tied together, not down. He relaxed the muscles in his abdomen as much as he could and flopped backwards over his legs. He was forced to deconstruct his right shoe so he could get to the array on the bottom of his foot, and touch it to the wires. They snapped, and he unfolded himself.

It felt like he had pulled a few dozen muscles but otherwise everything seemed to be working. He pulled out the gag and took a deep breath before unwinding the rest of his limbs. It took a few minutes of flexing and twitching to get the feeling back in the flesh-and-blood ones.

After reconstructing his shoe, he checked his equipment. They'd taken everything from his pockets, even the useless junk. They'd even taken his money. Ed made an obscene gesture towards where he could hear the fighting. There was one last place to check, though. Wherever Winry was she was probably mad at him.

He rolled up his left pants leg and opened up the shin plate on his automail. There hadn't been much room between the hydraulics and the wires, but it had occurred to him after he escaped the ninja village that it might be a good idea to have some arrays ready if he lost his arm again. Of course, if they took his leg too, he'd really be screwed. A small roll of alchemic arrays written out on thin paper and his engraved lighter were still inside. He took the lighter out, in case he needed a quick fire.

He was all ready to transmute another tunnel when he heard the noise. It was like cicadas in a blender, a high insect buzz and a low whirring that made his teeth hurt. Against his better judgment he crawled towards the fight.

A teenage boy in a tan coat and wraparound sunglasses was jumping and dodging all over the place as a guy in a purple poncho waved what looked like a giant, wire-wrapped dumbbell at him. The dents it left in the ground and trees after every dodge led Ed to believe the stupid-looking machine actually did something.

Ed hunkered down further as what looked like two horizontal miniature tornadoes passed by. Another guy with a music note etched on his headband and a lasso of weird-looking rope in his hand was running just behind the tornadoes, when one of them suddenly turned and shot back towards him. The music note guy leapt straight up thirty feet into the air and stuck to the side of a tree like a lizard. The tornado skidded to a stop for a second, and Ed saw it was another teenage boy with pointy teeth and red squares drawn on his cheeks. He had a leaf on his headband. A bunch of knives flew at the leaf kid from yet another direction. There was a blurring around him and suddenly a log was in his place, being struck with the blades.

Ed was just confused, but while the man was attacking the log, one of the tornadoes managed to get around behind the man and slam him into a tree. A woman with a music headband on ran by, clawing at a cloud of bugs that were swarming her head. As she ran, a knife sank into the back of her leg and she fell. More bugs burst out of the ground, covering her until Ed couldn't even see her outline.

_Right_, Ed thought. _Looks like they've got this under control._

He crawled away from the fight, moving deeper into the woods. He didn't want either group to notice him tunneling if he could help it. He was about to transmute when he heard laughter. He was really starting to hate laughter. He made his way through the undergrowth towards it, before his conscience could start annoying him.

The blind girl was surrounded, though Ed had pretty much definitely concluded by this point that she wasn't really blind. She was dodging and spinning out of the way of a storm of needles and knives that three music ninja were tossing at her, even as she went hand-to-hand against a fourth hulking man with a short sword. She was parrying thrusts with a small triangular knife.

The girl's white, pupil-less eyes were bulging and her face was covered in puffy veins. She was dancing around the weapons, not exactly with ease, but at least with enough skill that she didn't look strained. (Beyond the bulging eye thing.)

Still, the fight didn't look like it was going in her favor, and when the puppy dog yelped from somewhere in the forest, the girl stumbled and the sword sliced across her face. Blood poured down her cheek.

"Don't damage the eyes, you moron!" the female music ninja growled. "Do you know how much an unsealed Hyuga's head is worth?"

"Well, sorrrrry!" the ninja with the sword said, jabbing at the girl again. "And how much exactly is this little bitch's head worth?"

"Cloud offers a standard bounty of 200 million ryo," the woman said. "More for a live fertile one, but they tend to kill themselves when captured."

"Lord Orochimaru would have first priority if she is captured," said a man with what looked like an ear trumpet strapped to the side of his head. "Only if he does not wish to use her in breeding experiments would you be allowed to sell her to Cloud."

"We know the rules," said the man with the sword. "We were just talking. No harm in talking, right, little bitch?"

The girl looked rather disturbed, but Ed couldn't really blame her. He wondered what was taking her buddies so long to figure out that she was outnumbered and needed help.

_What if they aren't coming? They're outnumbered, too!_ Al's voice said.

_You remember the last time I tried to help her?_ Ed thought at the voice.

_You helped the bird, and that turned out alright_. Al's voice said.

_This girl is not a bird; this girl is a ninja_, he argued.

_If you leave her, you'll feel bad about it later._

_Alright, shut up. I'll give her a hand and then I'm running for it_.

His conscience did not say anything else, but he had a feeling it was smirking at him.

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The mission was not going well, and Hinata was certain it was her fault. She still wasn't feeling completely recovered from her injuries during the chunin exam, but Kiba had really wanted the mission and she thought Shino did, as well. Her insides felt like they were shaken loose, and the only thing really keeping her going was the memory of Naruto cheering her on during her last humiliating defeat. She wondered what Naruto would do in this situation. She had a feeling it would appear foolish and involve either nudity or some kind of explosion.

Between dodges she slipped her hand into her weapons bag and pulled out an exploding tag with adhesive on the back. She stuck it to her forehead.

The nin with the sword backed up a bit. Hinata supposed she couldn't blame him. It was a pretty big tag. Kiba had bought it for her when she'd admitted her father wouldn't give her money for "such common and vulgar" ordinance.

"Hey, little girl, don't do something crazy," said the sound ninja who'd just been calling her a bitch.

"I like crazy," she said very quietly, and charged towards him with no real plan.

The man set his feet, preparing to strike the charging girl, but started a bit when his foot hit an exposed root. Hinata saw his surprise. The root hadn't been there before. Even as she watched, it stretched further out of the ground.

Then the forest attacked.

A hand made out of wood shot out of a nearby tree. The man with the sword tried to leap back, but the ground crumbled beneath his feet and he landed on his backside. He slashed the wooden hand off with his sword, but more hands were popping out of the trees and snatching at him.

The other sound nin weren't left alone. The forest was snatching at them as well, though its aim was not nearly as good. The motion seemed rather random, as if the forest didn't have a very good line of sight.

A wooden hand managed to grab the swordsman's wrist and clamped down. He screamed as the bones snapped and the blade fell to the ground. It vanished into the soil. Roots rose up and looped around him, and he too was pulled out of sight.

"Where's it coming from?" the Sound woman demanded.

Hinata already knew. She could see Edward Elric kneeling in the undergrowth. His eyes were closed in focus and the ground glowed where his hands touched it. He didn't notice the Sound nin's tilting their heads like dogs. He definitely couldn't see them focusing chakra into their ears, so they could hear the hidden boy's heartbeat.

Hinata didn't know why he was helping her. He had every reason to hate her. She'd betrayed an act of kindness and wouldn't have blamed him if he had left her to death or worse. She probably deserved it. Still, none of the trees had attacked her; they groped blindly after the Sound ninja she'd been fighting.

Hinata stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled. It was another thing Kiba had taught her, though instead of calling a dog to her, it caused the Sound ninja to clutch their heads in pain.

But Hinata realized she hadn't been fast enough. The Sound woman was charging towards Ed's hiding place. He'd opened his eyes when she'd whistled, but he was looking at Hinata not the enemy nin, rushing at him with senbon in both hands. Hinata rushed to intercept, pulling her fingers from her mouth and flinging drool everywhere. She knew she wouldn't be fast enough. She was never fast enough…

But even as she was thinking this, her foot was striking the Sound woman in the hip, and the woman was stumbling off course. She still managed to throw her needles, but only one hit Ed and it bounced off his fake arm.

Another needle had hit Hinata in the bicep but it didn't hurt that badly, so she was a bit stunned to find herself face down in the dirt with her back feeling broken. She struggled to focus her eyes. She looked up through the top of her skull and saw a boot coming down on top of her head.

THUMP!

The world went dark for a moment, and she lost control of her byakugan. She tried to turn over to see, but the boot was still on top of her head, pinning her down. It was another Sound nin.

_I lost track of the other Sound nin…I messed up again…I need to pay attention…_

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

There was fire all around her.

Hinata tried to flinch away from the heat, but she was already face down on the ground and there was nowhere else to go. She held her breath, but even so the superheated air got into her nose and made her eyes water. The heat vanished, and she realized the boot was no longer stomping on her head. She pushed herself up and took a breath of smoky air. She started coughing. A hand clamped down on her arm and she lashed out, striking her attacker in the throat. She felt cartilage crunch.

"Gark!" Edward Elric said as he fell over, trying to breathe.

"Oh!" Hinata said as she got to her feet. "I'm s-s-sorry!"

She tried to focus her chakra, to look into his throat to make sure she hadn't collapsed his trachea, but the blow to her head was making it hard to concentrate. She tried to push his hands out of the way to get a better look. He was trying to say something. It was probably about not being able to breathe.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

_What were you supposed to do in this situation? Open the airway?_

Ed's hand darted out and grabbed the front of her jacket, pulling her against him. She tried to pull away, apologizing again. He had a lighter in his free hand and his thumb spun the steel. The tiny spark shouldn't have done much, but column of fire sprang up behind her and a woman screamed. Ed let go then and Hinata saw the female Sound ninja stumbling around, trying to beat out the fire that was consuming her hair and clothing.

Hinata shook her head trying to clear it. Enemy ninja, right, have to deal with those first.

Ed got up, looking around their smoldering corner of forest. He was still making unpleasant gasping sounds, but his face wasn't turning blue, so she supposed he was stable for the moment. She focused her chakra and her byakugan reactivated. She looked around. The Sound woman was still flopping around, the man with the ear trumpet was in the trees high above, lining up with a handful of kunai. She was sure he wasn't the one who had stepped on her, though. Where had that one gone?

She got her answer a moment later when two blistered hands popped out of the ground and seized Ed's legs, pulling him beneath the soil. She lunged towards him, trying to catch his hands, but they slipped through her fingers. She caught something in her palm and realized she'd snatched his lighter away from him. She didn't have any earth jutsu. She'd have to dig him out by hand, or find Kiba. He was a good digger, but was there time?

Two dozen kunai flying at her head told her there wasn't.

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The rope tangled around Akamaru's right arm and the Sound ninja pulled back on it. If the enemy nin hadn't braced the rope around the tree he was hiding in, the force of Akamaru's tunneling fang would have ripped his arms off. Unfortunately for the nin-dog the Sound nin planned ahead. The beast clone jerked to a stop and howled in pain as his foreleg was dislocated. The dog lost control of the chakra Kiba had lent him, and his temporary hold on a human form vanished in a puff of smoke.

Kiba looked up from his fight, and nearly lost his head to another wave of compressed air. He heard it coming, of course, and used replacement technique at the last instant. He spared a glance at Shino, but his teammate was still occupied with the nin-jerk with the poison darts, and he couldn't see Hinata at all.

She was probably in way over her head, as four of the sound ninja who had been following them were unaccounted for. He hoped she was running for the village as fast as she could, but he knew that was unlikely. She was kind of a screw-up, but she was a loyal screw-up.

Kiba saw the rope nin was reeling Akamaru in, but the puppy had seized the rope with his teeth and had dug into the tree with his nails. They were playing tug of war, but Kiba could see that his partner was losing. He took a moment to gulp down a few soldier pills and his hands flicked through a few dozen seals.

He charged the tree. The ninja he was fighting fired a blast of compressed air after him, but Kiba was moving faster. If that blast hit the tree, too, it would only help him out.

Slamming into the tree made his whole body hurt. He didn't stop moving, though. Bark flew everywhere and huge chunks of wood cracked apart under his clawed hands. The tree rattled and started to tilt.

The Sound ninja with the rope didn't let go of it. Instead, he leapt out of the tree and dragged the dog with him, swinging the dog around and slamming him into the ground. This time the puppy couldn't even whine. The Sound ninja gave the rope a sharp tug and the dog was pulled up off the ground again, and began to fall in a slow arch. The Sound nin took a measured step, and drop-kicked the puppy.

Kiba saw red.

A voice in the back of his head, that sounded like his mother giving a lecture, told him to keep some chakra in reserve and not to go charging in like a maniac, because the bait was so obvious. But Kiba didn't listen to it. He flooded everything he had into tunneling fang and charged.

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During his time as a ninja, Nobu of the Village Hidden in the Sound had seen panicked people do some pretty stupid things, but this Leaf ninja was setting some kind of record. The dog-like boy, probably a member of the Inuzuka clan, had completely lost all higher brain function when his nin-dog had been injured. He charged mindlessly at Nobu, ignoring the sound ninja's teammate Takeshi, who was his current opponent and the greater threat.

Nobu had plenty of time to pull the chakra-draining rope from the dog's unmoving body and tie another slip knot in it. With an almost casual flick of his hand he tossed the rope over the oncoming tornado and swung the other end around a tree trunk to brace it with.

The rope caught the Leaf ninja and tightened, and more loops wrapped around as the feral-looking boy continued to spin. The special fibers of the rope stuck to the victim and began to bleed off chakra. Using the rope, he could drain the life out of even a jonin-level ninja in less than five minutes. Nobu smirked and braced his feet, moments ticked past as he waited for the boy to get to the end of the rope.

The rope went taut, and for a second the sound ninja thought he'd won. The Leaf ninja jerked to a stop. The rope had wrapped several times around the feral boy's body and he slammed into the ground hard, and the Sound ninja thought he heard bones snap. But the Inuzuka was on his feet again in an instant.

The Leaf ninja grabbed onto the rope that bound him, turned towards Nobu, and charged. Nobu leapt back and the dog boy chased him. Takeshi fired at the boy with his compression coil, but the boy dodged, relentlessly chasing Nobu through the forest.

The Leaf ninja should have been suffering chakra exhaustion, but he kept coming, drooling and growling. He'd probably keep coming until he dropped dead, which wouldn't take long. Nobu just had to keep out of his reach until then.

Nobu leapt around another trunk into the clearing and the feral boy came after him, staggering to a stop. Nobu smirked at the Leaf ninja as he looked around the forest blearily, belatedly noticing Takeshi behind him. The boy stumbled around, apparently too out of it notice how much danger he was in. He finally noticed when he saw his dog, and took a step towards it before stumbling and falling to his knees.

"It's hopeless, mutt," Nobu said. "I've drained all your chakra."

"No…" the boy whispered, bringing his shaking hands to his face.

Nobu laughed. "No? Don't you mean 'Please no,' boy?"

"No," the boy said. "I mean I still have chakra."

The boy blurred into motion, chakra flooding through the rope again. Nobu realized the boy must have stuffed a soldier pill in his mouth when he was pretending to sob. Takeshi took a shot at the boy with his compression coil, but missed. Nobu glued his feet to the ground with chakra, and pulled back on the rope. It was slack.

Nobu looked over to see that the rope was no longer attached to any of the trees. In the next instant the dog boy charged past him and he was yanked off his feet.

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The Sound woman had managed to smother her flaming garments, and was pursuing Hinata relentlessly, as the other Sound ninja set up distance shots. Though her enemy had not shown off any particular jutsu, she seemed to have an endless supply of kunai and senbon.

If Hinata had better control, she could have mastered the heavenly spin, and knocked all incoming projectiles away, but she didn't and she couldn't and she was feeling panicked and doomed again.

Her head was in agony and there wasn't a moment to think or plan. Edward had taken half the pressure off her, but if she couldn't get the Sound ninja to engage her in close combat, she'd never even get a chance to beat them. She had run out of shuriken and was down to her last two kunai. And she couldn't risk throwing those.

The Sound ninja's kunai were everywhere, but Hinata couldn't risk picking those up. She could see a tiny seal carved on each of them, which glowed faintly with chakra. They would probably explode in her hand.

She decided to play them off each other, and ran up the nearest tree, heading for the ninja with the ear trumpet. The man's hands blurred into motion. A wave of compressed air tore the bark off the tree and Hinata barely managed substitution in time. The log she had switched with shattered, and she idly wondered what that blast would have done to her bones.

The Sound woman found Hinata right away and she was forced to deflect a few more senbon and kunai with her own.

"It's taken long enough, hasn't it?" the ninja with the ear trumpet asked.

"I suppose," the woman said, as her hands blurred through a dozen seals and the air crackled faintly. "Do you hear that, little girl? That's the sound of your doom!" she declared dramatically.

The senbon and kunai glowed for a second as their seals activated. Electricity arced between the bits of metal, forming a web of lightning, and Hinata was trapped within it. She had started to do the replacement technique, but electricity arced out of the net and into her remaining kunai, and through her headband into her body. Her muscles locked up and she couldn't even scream.

It stopped and she fell, arms and legs twitching. Her eyes opened and closed uncontrolled. The Sound woman dropped to the ground next to her. Hinata tried to focus her chakra, so she could at least hurt her attacker's ankles, but her hands just shook uselessly.

"I think she pissed herself," the Sound woman called to her companion.

"Just put her out already," the other called.

Very slowly the Sound woman leaned down. "Hey Hyuga," she said, raising a fist. "I'm probably the last person you'll ever see. Don't forget!"

_Don't let this happen!_ Hinata prayed. Her life was a mess, but it couldn't end like this. She tried to focus chakra into the tag she'd stuck to her head, but even that was beyond her.

The fist was blurring toward her face.

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Being buried alive hadn't gotten any more fun since the last time. The hands that had seized Ed's ankles and pulled him under had vanished. Ed almost missed them. When he was being dragged, he was going somewhere, but now he was abandoned in nowhere and he could barely wiggle his fingers, much less bring his hands together to transmute. Soil was pressing in on his face, trying to get into his mouth and nose.

He focused on the arrays on his palms, using them to break down the soil into smaller components. He stopped when he realized that was causing him to sink further into the earth.

_Calm down, and think. Not smaller, more organized._

He focused again, this time sticking particles together, forming the soil into solid lumps. Cracks of empty space appeared, and Ed finally got enough room to bring his hands together. A tunnel formed back to the surface. Ed scrambled up it, but suddenly a singed music ninja was blocking the entrance.

"You like fire, you little shit?" the man screamed as he looped his fingers in a strange pattern.

Ed clapped his hands together and then slammed them to the walls of the tunnel. He had a brief glimpse of fire shooting out of the music ninja's mouth before the earth closed up again. Ed clapped and transmuted again and made a new tunnel, but the ninja made it to the entrance before he could get to the surface. And the ninja blocked him again and again.

Ed wondered why the ninja didn't just jump into the ground and sneak up on him again. Maybe the guy was just screwing with him. Whatever his motives were, Ed was very sick of him.

Ed pressed his hands together and transmuted something big.

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The forest flipped over.

Hinata knew she was in the air, she knew she had been flung and was now falling, but there wasn't really much she could do about it, except hope she landed on something that wasn't hard or sharp. All around her, trees were being uprooted and flung around. Huge slabs of earth flipped over and crashed, filling the air with dust and debris. She saw a tree branch coming at her, and then everything went dark.

When the world came back, Hinata found herself lying in a pile of dirt. The Sound woman was a few meters away, sprawled against the base of a tree.

Hinata couldn't focus her chakra, but she got her fingers on the handle of the last kunai in her weapons pouch. It had melted partway through the pouch but was stuck to burned skin. She pulled it free. The Sound ninja was still stunned from her bad landing, but she'd be mobile any moment. Hinata got to her hands and knees and crawled towards her enemy.

She couldn't stand up, but the woman was on the ground, too. Hinata flopped onto the Sound woman and struck out with her knife. She had considered saying something like "I'm the last one you'll see", but she didn't. Stealth was important if you didn't have strength or speed. The woman must have got the idea as the knife went through her eye, and jarred to a stop against the back of her skull.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Kiba's vision had tunneled, which he knew was a very bad sign. Still, he knew where his first target was and he could feel his second target being pulled along behind him on his stupid chakra-draining cord. Kiba turned sharply to avoid another compression blast, and ducked under the Sound ninja, who was sent flying along in the original direction. The dumbbell guy dodged his teammate, making no effort to catch him or in any way help him avoid the tree Kiba had flung him toward. The rope ninja crashed into the tree with enough force to crack the trunk. He fell limp to the ground and the chakra drain cut off.

Kiba thought he would start to feel better when the drain stopped. But no strength returned to his limbs, he just didn't feel any worse. He could feel the soldier pill was wearing off as well.

A compression wave came at him and he stumbled and rolled out of the way just in time. As clods of earth and other shrapnel hit him, he struggled to untangle the rope. Even without the Sound ninja controlling it, it still stuck and tripped him up. And the other end was still tied to the unconscious Sound ninja. Tied down like this, Kiba couldn't even do replacement technique. Kiba pulled a knife and slashed at the rope, but it wouldn't cut.

The Sound ninja with the dumbbell stalked after him, setting up another shot. Just as he was bringing the machine to bear, a tan blur charged up the Sound ninja's back and slammed into his head.

Akamaru bit the Sound nin's ear and his working left paw scratched at the man's face. The Sound ninja cursed and slapped the little dog away. Akamaru hit the ground and yelped as he scurried away, slowed significantly by his injured leg. The Sound ninja pointed his weapon at the fleeing dog, but Kiba threw his knife and the enemy ninja jumped to avoid it.

"You think your stupid crippled dog is going to save you?" the Sound ninja mocked, aiming at Kiba again.

"My dog's not stupid," Kiba said, grinning. "He can set explosive tags."

The Sound ninja turned, looking back over his shoulder to where the little dog had touched him. He reached towards the armed tag just as it went off.

It was a big explosion.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

The two ninja facing off in the small clearing didn't flinch when they heard the explosion, though both did track the debris that was blown into their battlefield. A hand landed less than a meter from Shino, but the fingers were neither clawed like Kiba's nor small and delicate like Hinata's so he didn't waste time worrying about it.

Shino's allies had taken out his female opponent before she had a chance to use any techniques, but the other Sound ninja was much more difficult to dispatch. The man's main offense was poisoned darts and senbon, which Shino was constantly dodging, but the real problem was the man's defense. The sound ninja was either covered in or was secreting some kind of poison that was killing Shino's beetles the moment they touched him.

Shino frowned behind the high collar of his coat. Why did he always get stuck with the poisoners?

The entire forest shuddered and Shino barely kept his feet as the ground shuddered and a huge wall of earth tilted up and flipped over a few dozen meters to his left. He narrowly dodged a couple of trees that came bouncing towards him.

No one on team eight used earth jutsu like that, but he hadn't felt any chakra surge when it happened, and neither had his beetles. No chakra meant it wasn't a ninja, so either it was an unlikely natural disaster or Elric had entered the fight. Shino pondered for a moment which side the boy was likely to come in on.

Shino pushed the thought aside and drew a handful of shuriken. He would have to deal with this enemy first in any case, and he would have to use academy basics to do it. Besides, he had left several pheromone-heavy beetles on Elric, so the boy wouldn't be hard to track down when Shino had the time.

Shino threw the shuriken, but the Sound ninja dodged quickly enough to avoid them. The Sound ninja fired another round of darts, but Shino was able to dodge those as well. They continued circling each other, though as they moved, Shino was pulling the sleeves of his jacket down over his fists. It would've been better to use gloves, but he didn't have any, and if he was going to have to close with his opponent and use taijutsu, he wanted to expose as little skin as possible. He was about to charge in when a shadowy figure dropped out of the trees, landing a little behind the poison user Shino was facing.

It was a ninth Sound nin. The man was wearing a purple armored vest over gray camouflage fatigues. He was carrying a machine that looked like a giant kitchen whisk sticking out of an old fashioned radio. Though the machine appeared absurd, Shino had learned during the chunin exams that sound technology was very dangerous.

Shino assumed the new man must be more skilled than the other eight he and Hinata had spotted, or perhaps he had fallen behind the others, and was only now catching up. It was also possible that this man had simply been hanging back until his teammates obviously needed support. Shino had heard that Shikamaru had faced a Sound group using similar tactics during the attack at the chunin exam finals. Of course, that left him wondering why this man did not come to the aid of the Sound woman Shino's beetles had taken out.

"What's taking you so long?" the new man demanded of the poisoner.

"These brats are tricky," he answered. "But we're almost done."

"Hardly," the man with the machine said. "And I will be reporting this to our master. I'm going to finish this."

The new Sound nin flicked a switch on his machine, and the air started to hum. "Shattered Bone Scream!" the Sound ninja growled, as he wove a half-dozen seals and slammed his hand down on top of the machine.

"No! Don't!" the poisoner was shouting at his countryman, even as Shino was launching a kunai at him. Shino's kunai struck the distracted poisoner in the belly, but if the wound was significant or not, Shino didn't know. The machine the other Sound ninja had brought activated with a pulse of chakra, and Shino fell to his knees.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Ed stumbled across the trashed forest. Dozens of trees had been uprooted and rocks and chunks of soil made the ground maddeningly uneven. Ed climbed through the rubble. He saw a hand sticking up from a pile of dirt. It was bloody and not moving. He grabbed the hand and pulled. The limp body of the music ninja who'd been hounding him flopped out of the dirt. His neck was obviously broken.

Ed stepped back from the dead man and continued looking around. He saw the blind girl lying next to the music ninja woman who had been tormenting her. He hoped the woman was dead, as she had a knife through her eye. The girl was moving slightly, but clearly didn't have the strength to get up.

Ed's head hurt. He hadn't meant for anyone to die. He knew massive transmutations were dangerous, but the ninja seemed like they'd be able to get out of the way. He didn't think this world had lost anyone of great value, but it still felt like a loss.

He was moving towards the Leaf girl when a knife struck his automail arm and bounced off. He whirled and saw the music ninja with the ear trumpet looking down at him, from one of the few upright trees in the immediate area.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-00-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

The mission was not going like they planned, but Hibiki wasn't too concerned. They had been sent to scout routes into Leaf village, and had found quite a few were still open and poorly guarded. Though the Village Hidden in Sound had suffered significant losses attacking the Leaf, the Leaf was injured as well.

Hibiki did not know what Lord Orochimaru planned to do with the information, but it seemed like they were only finding a route for a small squad, perhaps for an assassination, or to kidnap a test subject. He also knew he was unlikely to be placed on that squad, which probably would have paid well.

But then a team of Leaf brats had stumbled across their path. The children were all from major clans, an Inuzuka, and Aburame and best of all a Hyuga. As his former teammate had pointed out, an unsealed Hyuga was worth her weight in money, and killing off the other two was good for a 10,000 ryo bonus apiece. And now there weren't many left to share it with.

Of course, the biggest prize could be the genin team's prisoner. Hibiki didn't recognize the short blond teenager from any of the Bingo books, but he didn't really seem to be a ninja. He certainly didn't act like one, charging around with no situational awareness. Of course, maybe the boy didn't really need it. Hibiki's kunai had bounced off the boy's arm like it was made out of metal. It got his attention, though.

"Who are you?" Hibiki asked the boy.

"I'm nobody."

"Well, nobody, I am Koga Hibiki of the Village Hidden in Sound."

"Good for you," the boy said. "Why don't you go back there?"

"My team and I saw that group of Leaf ninja carrying you all tied up and we thought we'd give you a hand. We were rather surprised when you attacked us."

"Yeah, I'm sure," the boy said sarcastically.

He clapped his hands together and pressed them to the ground. Hands made out of dirt and wood shot out of the ground and snatched at Hibiki, but he leapt back to avoid them. The limbs weren't moving very fast. He supposed they'd caught Ryuu by surprise, when he'd been pulled underground earlier. Hibiki could still hear him struggling beneath the surface.

"So what's that stupid thing on your head?" the boy asked, glaring up at him.

"It's part of my echolocation system. The rest is internal. It's very useful for low visibility fights, at night, in fog, you get the idea," Hibiki said casually. "Why are you helping the Leaf ninja? They had you all trussed up. Obviously you didn't want to go with them."

"I always side with the under-dogs. Personality flaw, I guess."

"Flawed or not, that was some pretty impressive jutsu. The Village Hidden in Sound is always looking for people with unusual talents."

"You're offering me a job?" the boy asked, skeptically.

"I'd get a bonus for bringing you in. Lord Orochimaru would make the final decision about your place in the Village."

"And you did notice that I squashed your buddy over there, right?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"That means we need to replace him. And I know my master would be very interested to learn how you did all that without using chakra."

"I'll bet," the boy said. "So does this job come with benefits: a nice locked cell in a lab and three square rounds of torture per day? Cause I got the same offer from Leaf."

Hibiki snorted and launched another blast of sound at him.

The boy clapped his hands together and blue and gold light flashed out. There wasn't a lot of space between the two opponents, but it was suddenly filled with steam. It vanished a moment later, leaving Hibiki confused and the boy smirking.

"How'd you do that?" Hibiki asked.

"You can't transmit sound through a void. I moved the atmosphere out of your way."

"Clever," Hibiki said.

"And loud," the boy said, glancing over the Sound ninja's shoulder.

Hibiki started to dodge, even as his eyes flicked in search of the Hyuga, but she was still twitching on the ground next to his dead teammate. He pumped a huge amount of chakra into his ears as he leapt up into the trees. But he could only hear three heartbeats in the immediate area, his own, the boy's, and the girl next to the corpse. She wasn't a bunshin, she was real. The boy had bluffed. He was just stalling for time. That little-

An ear-splitting blast caused him to lose his footing. He fell from his perch clawing at his echo collection cone, but he couldn't get it off. His opponent was gritting his teeth but charged forward despite the sound. The last thing he saw was a boot coming at his face. Even as he lost consciousness he damned Kichiro for turning that damned machine on.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Ed finished chaining up the idiot with the ear trumpet and went to check on the girl. His teeth ached from whatever was making that horrible sound, but the earplugs he had transmuted were keeping most of it out. He was glad the music ninja weren't so smart about combining sound sensitive tracking equipment with destructive sound attacks. Whatever they were doing in other parts of the forest had stunned Ed's opponent long enough for Ed to knock him out.

It was a lucky break for Ed, as he didn't have any kind of plan for taking out the freak with the ear trumpet, and the inside of his head felt like it was unraveling from way too many big transmutations in too short a span of time.

The girl was sitting up on her own now, clutching at her head. Her whole body was twitching and apparently she didn't notice him until his shadow fell across her. He didn't get too close, though, and this time he didn't get punched in the throat. She looked up at him and said something, but of course with the ear plugs in, Ed couldn't tell what.

Her eyes bulged out for a second and the veins on her face swelled, but then she swooned and her face went back to normal. She said something else, again and again, and then raised a shaking hand to point. Ed took a few steps away from her and looked in that direction, but saw nothing. She kept talking, though, and held her hands up in a begging gesture. Ed knew even if he took his earplugs out he wouldn't be able to make out her words.

He clapped his hands, and transmuted the air around them, increasing the density locally and reducing it further out. It felt like he was breathing soup, and everything sounded weirdly distorted when he pulled out his earplugs, but the horrid sound weapon was deflected by the shifts in medium.

"Talk fast," Ed said, "This won't last long."

"Please, help my teammates," the girl said. "That sound is killing them. Th-th-there is a machine over there, if you could destroy it-"

"Why should I?" Ed interrupted. "You all were attacking me, remember? I'd be better off if you were all dead."

The girl was very pathetic looking, and her eyes were tearing up. "Than…w-w-why did you help me?"

"Those music note ninja might've chased after me when they were finished with you," Ed said scowling. "I doubt either group of ninja is up to chasing me now."

His ears popped as his air bubble started to drift away. He didn't like to be cruel, but he didn't want them to think he was a pushover.

"Please!" the girl begged. She may have been trying to bow humbly, but she ended up flopping over, face down in the loose forest soil. "Please help them! Even if you just did whatever you are doing now, you could save them. Please! I'll do anything!"

"Anything?" Ed asked. The horrible sound was coming back.

The girl used shaking arms to raise herself out of the dirt. "Anything!"

"I help your friends, you three walk away and say you never saw me, got it?" Ed asked.

The girl nodded. "Yes, we never saw you. We won't t-t-try to catch you again, I swear!"

"Alright then," Ed said. He put his earplugs back in and reached down to help her up. "Come on."

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Shino clutched his head. His sunglasses were the first thing to shatter. His eardrums burst soon after. He thought once they were gone the pain might lessen, but it didn't. His throat felt raw, but he wasn't sure if he was screaming or not.

He could feel the vibrations in his whole body now, especially in his teeth. He knew a lot of his allies' shells had already burst. Chitin had a different frequency from calcium-heavy mammalian skeletons, but the jutsu the Sound nin had cast, "shattered bone" was aptly named.

Shino wasn't sure of the range, but he and the Sound nin he'd been fighting had both succumbed to it. Shino hoped Kiba and Akamaru had escaped, but he couldn't see them, and knew it was unlikely.

He knew his hands weren't really protecting his head, but it took supreme effort to overcome instinct, and let go so he could reach for his weapons pouch. He couldn't balance, the world was spinning. He didn't think he had a chance in hell of disabling the strange weapon, but he had to do something.

Suddenly the air was glowing with blue and gold light.

The pain didn't stop, but Shino realized, even as the Sound ninja checked his device, that it was only pain from his previous injury. The sound waves had cut off.

A mixture of pheromones and chakra flooded Shino's body as he summoned his surviving beetles. They'd gone deep underground to avoid the weapon. He didn't know if they'd surface in time to help, but he couldn't wait. He charged the Sound nin, though he could barely keep his legs under him.

As he moved, he realized there was something wrong with the air. A few steps took him through air that felt like syrup. During the next few he couldn't breathe, and it felt like his eyes were going to pop out. He kept stumbling forward. The Sound ninja's weapon hadn't broken. Someone had broken the air so it couldn't transmit.

The Sound ninja looked up from his machine and saw Shino coming towards him. He abandoned the weapon that was no longer effective, and drew a katana that had been strapped to his back. Shino's own knife was hardly a match, but retreating was not an option.

The Sound ninja moved so fast he was a blur. Shino spun, just barely managing to block the first down swing of the larger blade. The Sound ninja would have been too fast even if Shino were not injured. They both knew the bug user couldn't keep up.

Shino noticed motion over the Sound ninja's shoulder, a swirling mass that was either Kiba or Akamaru in the midst of tunneling fang, but the Sound ninja didn't react. Shino realized that whatever his enemy had used to protect himself from his own weapon had left him as deaf as his victims. Shino parried another thrust with the katana, but his enemy let go of his blade with one hand and struck Shino in the throat. Shino reeled back. The tunneling fang was almost upon them, and though the Sound nin apparently couldn't hear it, he saw the motion from the corner of his eye and started to dodge. Shino leapt at him and latched onto his arm, gluing his feet to the ground with chakra so his enemy could not escape the attack. The Sound ninja struggled to free himself but Shino hung on, deflecting another blow from the katana. This close, the longer blade was no longer much of an advantage. In the next instant his teammate's attack slammed into them.

**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Kiba was hobbling towards where he figured his teammates were. He wasn't really in any condition to help, but he couldn't just lie on the ground and wait to see if friend or foe came to find him. Though Akamaru was actually a little better off, having only a dislocated leg and a couple of broken ribs to top off his bruises, Kiba insisted on carrying him. He could smell Shino and was moving towards him when the horrible sound started peeling away his brain.

Kiba figured they were all screwed when he heard it. He fell to the ground, clawing at his head, and Akamaru, lying on his chest, howled in agony. He wasn't sure how long they lay there, waiting for it to end, but suddenly it did. Kiba rolled over, still holding his dog to his chest. His ears were ringing and he wasn't sure what was going on.

Akamaru pulled away from him, and latched onto Kiba's weapons pouch with his teeth. Before he could stop him, the little dog and pulled the pouch open and had gulped down a soldier pill. His fur stood up and turned red as the artificial chakra boost flooded his body. The dog yapped at Kiba, and though Kiba couldn't really hear his partner, he understood; the dog needed Kiba to mold chakra for him. Though Kiba felt like he was burning, he dragged up enough chakra to perform the beast clone jutsu again.

Akamaru took off in a blur, despite his injured foreleg. Kiba got to his feet again and stumbled after him. When he caught up to Akamaru, the fight was over.

The little dog was sitting next to Shino, who was lying unconscious on the ground. Kiba hobbled towards him, noting one Sound ninja chained up and unconscious, though Kiba had no idea where the chains had come from. That Sound ninja had a kunai sticking out of his gut. There was another that looked like he'd been run over with a herd of cattle, which he assumed was Akamaru's doing. That one was dead. The one Akamaru took out wasn't one of the eight Kiba recognized. A ninth Sound ninja had shown up. He sniffed the air, but couldn't detect any more. That didn't mean there weren't any.

He knelt down to check on Shino, but whenever he touched his teammate, beetles would swarm all over his hands. And yelling "I'm trying to help, you stupid bugs" didn't get them to back off. He could see that Shino was breathing evenly, but the blood leaking out of the other teenager's ears was very unsettling. The fact that bugs were running in and out of those same ears didn't make things any better. Kiba sighed, and got up. He left Akamaru to guard Shino, and went looking for Hinata.

He could smell her. She had come into the clearing and checked on Shino as well. He could also smell the object of their mission, Edward Elric. The boy was walking with Hinata. He hoped the boy hadn't taken her prisoner. Shuffling at an old man's pace, Kiba set off after them.

He didn't have to go far. Hinata was sitting down in a ruined section of forest and Elric was standing over her. Kiba's hearing was coming back. He could tell they were arguing, and a Sound ninja with an ear-trumpet was chained up and lying next to them. Hinata looked like crap. She was filthy and smelled like burned cloth and flesh, as well as blood and sweat, and she had a cut across her cheek. Elric was equally dirty and he had dark circles under his eyes.

"What do you mean, you don't see him? I buried him. He's down there!" Elric was saying, pointing at the ground.

"Th-there's no one there," Hinata said weakly. "He must've escaped."

"And you're not just waiting for him to suffocate?" Elric asked.

"I-I'm not. He's not here," she said.

"Whatever, screw it," Elric declared.

"What's going on?" Kiba asked.

"I buried a music ninja, and now I can't find him," Elric said.

"A music ninja?" Kiba asked.

"One of those freaks with a little music note etched on his metal headband thing," Ed said.

"They're Sound ninja, not music ninja," Kiba said.

"Whatever," Elric said.

"If one escaped, we can't hang around here," Kiba said, sniffing the air. He could detect traces of several enemy ninja, but he couldn't tell who was who, or where they were. "He might show up with more of them; we better regroup."

"Well, good luck with that," Elric said, he turned and started walking away.

"Where are you going?" Kiba asked.

"Away from you," their former prisoner said.

"You can barely walk," Kiba said. "If that Sound ninja comes back with or without back up, you're screwed."

Edward Elric turned to glare "I'll take my-"

A shadow darted from the undergrowth before the fugitive could finish his sentence. To his credit, Elric did notice the ninja leaping towards him, and turned to face his attacker. There was a clang of metal against metal and Elric used his metal arm to block a downward sweep of the Sound ninja's sword. The ninja's foot lashed up, and Elric flipped backwards, folding his body out of the way of the kick. Elric retaliated with a kick of his own, but the Sound ninja turned out of the way, and the indirect blow didn't do enough to hurt him.

Kiba and Hinata rushed towards the fight, as much as they were able to rush, but Kiba barely had enough chakra to keep his eyes open, much less fight, and Hinata was shaking so badly she couldn't hold a kunai. Throwing was probably out of the question.

Elric fell back and blocked. He dodged, but he couldn't seem to do more damage to the Sound swordsman than he already had. The Sound ninja was covered with dirt and his clothing was torn. He still had a few roots and chunks of splintered wood stuck to him, but they were no longer restraining him. Elric retreated a few paces with his hands clasped together. He dove away from a thrust and slammed his hands to the ground. A dozen spikes grew out of the soil and tried to impale the Sound ninja, but the ninja leapt away with plenty of room to spare.

Elric went to duck another sweep of the sword and it passed just over his head, but the Sound ninja suddenly reversed the blade and pulled it across the teenager's back. The blade caught on Elric's metal shoulder and bounced away, flinging blood across the clearing. The cut wasn't that deep, and the blade didn't seem to be poisoned. Still, there was a lot of blood. Elric ignored it, watching the ninja as he circled him.

Hinata and Kiba circled them, waiting for a moment when they'd be able to do something useful. Apparently Hinata thought she saw an opening because she rushed in. Kiba didn't try to stop her, half because he thought she might have seen an opening he didn't, and half because he couldn't grab at her fast enough. Hinata's hands glowed with chakra, but the light was much fainter than Kiba had ever seen it. She moved to strike the Sound ninja in the back, but she seemed to be moving in slow motion and her opponent was not.

The Sound ninja whirled with the sword already sweeping towards Hinata's neck. Kiba rushed towards them, but his steps were slow and stumbling. Hinata was bringing up her arm to block, but she wasn't expelling enough chakra to deflect the blade. A purple-hued light surrounded the Sound ninja, and Kiba wondered if the man was using some technique to make his sword strike more damaging. Kiba vaguely heard the echo of clapping hands and then another Sound he didn't recognize at all.

Blood splashed across Kiba's face, and he stumbled. Something hit him in the chest. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes, while dodging randomly to the side. He couldn't help Hinata while he couldn't see, but if she was still alive, he didn't want to trample on her. He finally found a clean part of his sleeve to wipe his eyes with, but what he saw didn't make any sense.

Edward Elric was the only one still standing. Hinata was on the ground clutching the arm she'd been trying to block the sword with. Kiba couldn't tell if she was seriously injured. Both of them were splattered with blood. The Sound ninja lay on the ground, in pieces. Confused, Kiba slowly walked back towards them.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Didn't have time to transmute," Elric said very quietly. Kiba didn't think the teenager was capable of being that quiet. "I had to deconstruct."

Kiba looked down at the body. It was just about the goriest thing he had ever observed. The middle of the Sound ninja appeared to have dissolved, and the outer pieces, especially the sword-carrying arms, had been flung apart, momentum carrying them along different paths.

"You…you just dissolved him?" Kiba asked.

Elric shrugged.

"You can just dissolve someone by touching them?" Kiba asked. "Why didn't you do that sooner?"

Elric glared at him. "Unlike some people, I don't get up every morning with plans for a high body count."

"He was trying to kill you!" Kiba said, incredulous.

"I noticed," was all he said in reply.

"Are you alright?" Kiba asked Hinata.

"My a-a-arm is cut, but it's not t-t-too deep. He lost his grip on th-th-the sword when he m-m-melted," she said.

She lifted her hand from the wound, and blood poured out. Kiba could see bone.

"Put your hand back on it," Elric ordered. "And hold it up above your head."

Kiba searched through his pack for bandages, and noticed everything but his kunai had spilled out when Akamaru had gone digging through it for soldier pills. He waved for Hinata to lean forward so he could check her hip pouch, but it was empty, too.

"Crap," Kiba said.

"There were lots of medical supplies in my t-t-travel pack," Hinata said. "I d-d-dropped it when the fight started. I th-think it was over there."

She nodded her head towards a still intact part of the forest. Kiba nodded and started walking in that direction. His best pace was little more than a shuffle. Elric made a frustrated noise and muttered something that ended with the word "Al". Kiba stopped to look at him.

"I'll get it," Elric said. "But then I'm leaving!" he declared.

He stormed off into the woods, muttering.

"Did you get the other three that had followed you?" Kiba asked Hinata as she sat on the ground.

"I took out one of them, the woman. She's dead over there. Edward got the other two."

Kiba walked over and found the woman with the knife in her eye, and a half buried dead man with a broken neck. He took all of their equipment, and started dragging the man back to where Hinata was sitting. By the time he got there, Elric had returned with Hinata's bag and was kneeling next to her, helping her bandage her arm. Kiba noticed blood was still dribbling down Elric's back from where the Sound ninja had sliced him.

"-needs stitches, but I can't sew to save my life," Elric was saying. "I think this should hold long enough for you to get back to your crazy village, though."

Hinata was nodding. Elric looked over at Kiba. He started to say something, when his eyes suddenly rolled up into his head. He collapsed unconscious in Hinata's lap. Kiba whirled around looking for the source of the attack. Belatedly he noticed Hinata's raised, glowing hand. She had knocked their target out, again. She seemed more surprised than Kiba.

Kiba dropped the Sound ninja and walked over to her, helping her roll the unconscious boy out of her lap. He was pretty sure his female teammate was about to burst into tears, and he struggled for something comforting to say to her. He could see the guilt and smell the shame.

"We'd better get him bandaged up before we tie him," he finally managed.

She nodded, going through the bag Elric had fetched for her.

"How bad is it?" Kiba asked.

"He'd be better off with stitches too, but the best I can do right now is tape it closed. Aside from other minor cuts and bruises, he is in good health. I…I would not have closed the tenketsu in his neck otherwise."

Kiba scratched the back of his neck. "You did the right thing," he mumbled.

"No I didn't," she whispered, shaking her head.

He didn't know how to argue that, and went to work collecting the Sound ninjas' corpses.

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Shino came to, blinking up at the forest canopy. His chest ached and his left arm felt broken, but his insides hummed and vibrated, letting him know that his colonies had returned to his body. More had survived than he had initially estimated. Something close by smelled strongly of dog, and Shino realized his head was resting on Kiba's rolled up jacket. It was probably an apology of sorts for catching him with his attack.

Shino started to sit up, but Hinata's face popped into his field of vision. Her face was dirty and bruised and she had a deep cut on her cheek, but she didn't seem any more agitated than usual. Her mouth moved, but he could hear nothing. She was probably telling him to lie back down, so he did.

"Is Kiba injured?" Shino asked.

She flinched back and he realized he must've shouted his question. Shino pointed at his ears with his working hand, and she caught on, making the hand signs for "all accounted for".

Careful to modulate his voice, Shino spoke again. "Aside from my eardrums and broken arm, do I have any serious injuries?"

She seemed to think for a moment before carefully mouthing "Torn ligaments, cracked ribs, low chakra".

Shino nodded. "If you can set my arm, I will be able to continue with the mission."

She nodded and carefully pulled his arm into her lap. Her eyes bulged as she lined up the ends of the bone. He did his best to conceal his agony as it was splinted. When she finished he sat up, and she put his arm into a makeshift sling.

He looked around. All nine of the Sound ninja who had attacked them were laid out on the ground; six appeared to be dead. The woman Shino's bugs had drained, the ninja with the rope, and the Sound ninja with the metal cone on the side of his head were among the living. Shino figured the poison user with the belly wound must have been exposed to his own toxins through the break in his skin. Shino didn't see any other sign of injury.

The three survivors were chained up, and Kiba stood--or rather sat--guard over them. The dog-boy's eyes were hollow with exhaustion, but when he saw Shino, he said something with a smirk. Shino missed his meaning entirely, but gave a noncommittal wave with his working hand.

Shino continued his search of the area and was a bit surprised to find they were still in possession of their target. Edward Elric was bound up and blindfolded again. He was lying on his stomach with a rolled-up coat under his head and a blanket over his back. Akamaru was lying across the boy's legs with his front right leg in bandages. Both prisoner and dog appeared to be sleeping.

Shino took over the watch so his teammates could sleep. Though Shino couldn't hear, his beetles would be able to warn him if anything strange approached. His allies alighted on the Sound prisoners, draining their chakra so that they wouldn't wake up inconveniently. Elric was spared this, mostly because his chakra was so low to begin with, but also because of Hinata's frantic, half-pantomimed retelling of Elric's coming to their rescue. It didn't really matter, since Elric slept through the entire night without artificial influence.

Shino wasn't sure what the Sound squads were doing this deep in Leaf territory, and nothing in their effects had given any clues. He didn't spend too much time worrying about it, as the information would probably be acquired from their captives when they got them to the interrogation department.

Edward Elric woke several hours before dawn, and insisted, probably loudly, that he be untied so he could pee. Shino went with him, keeping his colony visible and swarming so Elric understood that if he tried to flee he would not get far. Elric did make one attempt to surreptitiously remove the wires binding him, but froze when Shino's bug started to crawl down the collar of his shirt. Eventually the blond teenager went back to sleep.

When the sun came up, team eight and their prisoners started the slow march back to the village. They put the bound Sound ninja on stretchers and dragged them along, since none of them knew how to seal a captive for easy transport, and they didn't feel well enough to carry them. They walked through the woods at a civilian pace, forcing Elric to march in the middle of their small group, with about a quarter of Shino's colony clinging to his shoulders. They'd gagged Elric about a half-hour into the journey, as he had woken in a bad mood and hadn't stopped cursing since.

When they came to a road they followed it, hoping to run into a trading caravan, and maybe catch a ride. They'd been on the road for about three hours when Kiba and Akamaru both tilted their heads up and sniffed the air.

"There's a group coming up behind us," Kiba said, slowly enough for Shino to read his lips. "They're Leaf ninja. Naruto's with them."

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**Author's note**: This chapter became super-gigantic. The fight scene just kept getting bigger and bigger. Anyway, let me know what you think.

P.S. An Ear Trumpet is an old-timey hearing aid, which pretty much looks like trumpet with one end stuck in a person's ear.


	12. Chapter 12

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 12**

The three adult members of the group had long ago detected the party up ahead, and were detected in turn. Jiraiya didn't believe the other group had stopped at random. They turned a bend in the trail, and even Tsunade looked a bit surprised to see three battered Leaf ninja, young enough to still be genin, three Sound ninja unconscious on stretchers, and a bound and gagged blond kid lurking at the side of the road.

When Naruto saw them, he took off like a shot.

Either he ignored the fact that Edward was tied up, or did not notice. He jumped at Ed, throwing his arms around the older boy's neck, and knocking them both into a savage-looking Inuzuka boy, who couldn't quite support the sudden additional weight. All three ended up in a heap on the ground, and the Inuzuka boy's dog leapt to the top of the pile. It yipped, apparently thinking it had won.

"Ed! I'm so happy you aren't dead!" Naruto shouted in Ed's face.

The other boy nodded tiredly and muttered something through his gag.

"Get off me!" the Inuzuka boy growled.

He had fallen with an arm under him and was having trouble escaping the pile. He looked to his teammates for help. One was an Aburame with his arm in a sling, and the other was a main branch Hyuga girl. If Jiraiya was not mistaken, she was probably the main branch heir. The girl was staring at the pile of boys with a vacant expression on her face and her mouth hanging slightly open. Jiraiya was just getting an idea for a novel when the dog boy interrupted his thoughts.

"A little help, Hinata?" the Inuzuka boy growled.

Hinata, blushing furiously, darted forward, scooped the little dog off the top of the pile, and then darted back with it in her arms.

"Yeah, thanks a lot," the Inuzuka muttered.

Meanwhile Naruto was telling Ed all about the festival city and some sort of ring toss game, still oblivious to the gag in his friend's mouth or his obviously uncomfortable position. The Inuzuka boy finally managed to crawl free. He got up and gave Naruto a kick in the ribs. This precipitated the release of Ed, as Naruto turned toward the Inuzuka to demand "What was that for? Kiba, you jerk!"

"Perhaps you should take a moment to examine your immediate situation," the Aburame boy said, speaking in an oddly careful manner. Jiraiya noted how the boy looked at people's mouths when they spoke.

"Hu?" Naruto asked, looking around. "Oh. Hi, Hinata! Didn't see you there."

The Hyuga girl gulped and nodded.

"That is not precisely what I meant," the Aburame said.

"So just say what you mean, then!" Naruto said, huffing. "You don't have to be all mysterious, Shino! Hey, what happened to your sunglasses?"

"They were destroyed by Sound infiltrators, yesterday," Shino said. "As were my eardrums."

"Why didn't you get Ed to fix them? He's good at fixing stuff. Hey, why are you all tied up?" Naruto asked Ed.

Ed once again muttered something through the gag. Naruto finally caught on and pried the drool-soaked cloth out of the other's mouth.

"There's kind of been a misunderstanding," Ed said.

Naruto reached for the wires that bound Ed's arms, but Kiba jerked him back by his collar.

"He's tied up for a reason!" Kiba said.

"Why's that?" Jiraiya asked.

"He fled the village," Shino said, "after escaping Ibiki's custody."

"Why the hell was he in Ibiki's custody?" Jiraiya demanded.

"I do not have that information," Shino said.

Jiraiya frowned. The council had to know it was a bad idea to put the kid through the ringer. If they wanted information from a non-hostile, they should have been using a spy to befriend or seduce the target, and then pick his brain. He wondered what the kid had done to get himself moved to the hostile category.

"Look, pervy sage!" Naruto shouted, pulling Ed back to his feet. "He didn't die!"

"I see that, brat," Jiraiya said. "But what's he doing out here? You do remember a missing nin tried to kill you?" he asked Ed.

The teenager shrugged his bound arms and scowled.

"Missing nin?" Kiba asked.

"Uchiha Itachi," Jiraiya said. "Nobody mentioned this to you kids before giving you this mission?"

"We were only assigned to retrieve him when he fled the village," Shino said.

"Hey!" Ed said. "I've got places to go and stuff to do. This ninja stuff is not my problem."

"It becomes your problem when you piss off one of the craziest missing nin in the history of the country," Jiraiya said.

"What did he do?" Kiba asked.

The Inuzuka boy had looked a bit queasy since hearing the "I" word. Though the details of the massacre of the Uchiha clan was supposed to be classified, it was hard to not to notice the entirety of the most famous clan in the village being slaughtered in one night.

"Ed told that Uchiha bastard to go to hell and take his goldfish boyfriend with him!" Naruto declared. "It was awesome!"

Tsunade laughed. "Who was the goldfish?"

"Hoshigaki Kisame," Jiraiya said.

"Also an S-ranked missing nin," Shino added helpfully.

"I don't care if he was Z-ranked," Ed said. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna just let them pull any kind of shit they want."

"There is no such thing as Z-ranked," Shino said.

"Whatever," Ed growled. "I don't really care."

Jiraiya wondered what was going on in the village. Koharu and Homura couldn't be that callous, to risk a group of genin like that. Jiraiya looked at the Sound team the genin had captured. He supposed the kids could be some kind of ace squad, but the mission was still over their heads.

"Hey, old man," Ed said to Jiraiya. "You can order these brats around, right?"

Jiraiya nodded. He considered telling the brat off for calling him old, but he decided to hold in his indignation for now.

"Well, since I took up the slack when you wandered off, why don't you tell them to let me go and we'll call it even?"

"What did you pull in Konoha that you're so afraid to go back?" Jiraiya asked.

"I'm not afraid-" Ed began.

"He stole the Hokage's Tower," Kiba said.

"What?" Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune said together. At the same time Naruto was shouting "Awesome!"

"I didn't steal it," Ed objected. "I just moved it, a little."

"Do you have your mission scroll?" Jiraiya asked team eight.

Shino handed it over, and Jiraiya looked through it. It didn't mention the tower being moved, only acts of vandalism. As he looked through the paperwork, Shizune took the Inuzuka boy's dog and started healing its leg. It was a B-rank mission, but Jiraiya couldn't overrule it. It would take a dispensation from the Hokage to do something like that. He looked over at Tsunade, who had grabbed ahold of the dog's owner, and was patching up his injuries as he squirmed. Lady Tsunade couldn't override this until she had been sworn in. Jiraiya looked over at Ed, who was obviously frustrated and tired.

"Sorry kid, this isn't something I can just dismiss. But you have my word we'll get it worked out when we get back to the village," Jiraiya said. "Till then you're still in custody."

Ed rolled his eyes. He started to say something, and the Hyuga heir winced in anticipation, but Naruto interrupted before anything could get said.

"But that's not fair!" the orange genin shouted.

"Life's not fair," Jiraiya said.

"That's a stupid thing to say," Naruto said. "Why can't you just let him go? Who cares if the council is mad? Those old farts will be mad no matter what you do!"

"Even if you're the Hokage, you can't just ignore the council. Just because you don't like a rule doesn't mean you can ignore it," Tsunade put in. "You still want the job someday, kid? You'll be stuck enforcing a lot of rules you don't like."

"But they're stupid rules!" Naruto said.

"So if Edward is a spy, with orders to find important military buildings and destroy them, would it be alright to lock him up?" Tsunade asked.

"I guess, maybe, but he isn't!" Naruto said.

"How do you know he isn't?" Jiraiya asked.

"Because he's not!" Naruto said.

"I'm not," Ed said, though neither Naruto or Jiraiya were really listening to him.

"What's your proof, brat? He's got fake papers and he won't tell us where he's from. Isn't that a little suspicious?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah, but-"

"If he's got nothing to hide, why doesn't he just explain himself?" Jiraiya asked.

"Maybe the person asking him is a jerk!" Naruto said.

"Exactly!" Ed agreed.

"So we should let him go!" Naruto declared, reaching for the wires that bound Ed, again.

This time it was Jiraiya who stopped him.

"Excuse us for a moment," Jiraiya said, grabbing Naruto's collar and dragging him a bit away from the group. The last thing he needed was those two dumb loudmouth blonds egging each other on.

Jiraiya knew Naruto was a bit slow on the uptake, and it was clear from his manners that he wasn't socially savvy. He had hoped the boy had figured out what ninja did wasn't always the right thing. Ninja did what they had to do.

"What did you do that for?" Naruto demanded as Jiraiya dropped him on his butt.

"You were coming fairly close to insubordination," Jiraiya said. "That could end your ninja career pretty quickly. It could land you in an interrogation cell right next to your friend's."

"So what!?" Naruto said. "At least I'd have done the right thing! Isn't that what we're supposed to do?"

"The right thing isn't always the right thing," Jiraiya said, realizing how circular his argument sounded.

He wondered who had been raising this kid. It was like he didn't understand that there was a gray area of morality where ninja usually resided. He didn't want to have to explain it to him. He just didn't get on well with children. He wanted to shout "Shinobi obey orders, so deal with it," but he knew that wouldn't get through to the kid.

"Why do you trust Edward so much?" Jiraiya asked, trying to start over. "Is it just because you think you owe him?"

Naruto shook his head. "He's my friend. He helped me out when those akey-yaki guys came after me. He didn't have to help me, and he got hurt trying."

"Why did you trust Kabuto?" Jiraiya asked, recalling the teenager who had aided Orochimaru in his recent battle against them. Jiraiya hadn't overheard too much of what Naruto and the traitor had said to each other, but discovering the Sound agent's true agenda must have had some kind of impact on Naruto.

"Cause he helped us out during the chunin exam…" Naruto said, trailing off and looking very torn. "But Kabuto didn't get almost stabbed to death cause of me. And Kabuto was always smirking, I guess because he thought he was so great for tricking us into trusting him. But Ed doesn't smirk much. He just looks kind of tired and sad."

Jiraiya nodded. "If you want my opinion, I don't think Edward means us any harm, or at least he didn't when he met you. But he can't be allowed to wander wherever he wants unchecked. If he could be a threat, we have to treat him like one. Tsunade will get this worked out with the council, I'm sure, but if you get yourself thrown out of the ninja ranks by breaking a direct order, you won't be able to help your friend at all. Do you understand, brat?"

"You have to promise you won't let anything bad happen to him," Naruto said.

"I promise I'll do everything in my power to make sure the council goes easy on your friend. Good enough?" Jiraiya asked.

Naruto scowled. "I guess."

Jiraiya huffed. "Whatever. Come on. I want to debrief those genin about their other prisoners."

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Jiraiya returned with Naruto just as Tsunade was finishing up with the Inuzuka boy. He had the least combat trauma in the group, but he had almost managed to poison himself with soldier pills. She had whipped up an antidote to help the boy flush the toxins from his system. He had scowled and struggled as she made him drink it, complaining the whole time that the potion smelled bad. For a boy who reeked like B.O. and dog, he sure was picky.

Tsunade waved the Aburame boy over. She could feel his chakra and that of his destruction bugs, moving in strange patterns beneath his skin. She was always a bit disturbed when she worked on the insect host clan, but at least this boy was polite and quiet. He smelled better, too.

While she healed him, Aburame Shino gave the initial report detailing their pursuit and capture of Ed using Hyuga Hinata as the bait / damsel in distress, and the following battle in which their prisoner returned to help them. Shino gave his entire account in an unwavering monotone. She wondered if it was due to his burst eardrums.

Naruto's shouting interrupted her thoughts. Apparently he found some part of Shino's story "Awesome" and was loudly expressing his fervent desire to participate in such a battle. Shino asked why Naruto wanted to be on a mission involving such complex moral dynamics.

She snuck a few looks at Edward Elric as she worked. The Sound nin had done some damage, but the three rookies and their prisoner taking out nine chunin was nothing to sneeze at. The "Alchemist" sat mostly quiet as the others were healed. Occasionally he said something that kept Naruto entertained. Tsunade wondered what she was going to do with him.

It was obvious Ed was not a ninja. She couldn't in good conscience imprison him indefinitely. He hadn't killed anyone from Leaf or Fire Country as far as she could tell. Still, they couldn't just let people go around rearranging the village; they'd lose even more respect from the other military powers.

But what the hell could he be?

Shizune had already finished healing the Hyuga girl, but Tsunade sent her a look, telling her to leave Edward to her. Even without close contact she knew something really strange was going on with the Alchemist's chakra. And the mechanical prosthetics bugged the hell out of her. They'd revolutionize treatment of amputees if she could figure out how they were made. But at the same time she could tell they were putting a lot of painful stress on the boy's body.

Shizune nodded to her boss and started up a quiet conversation with Hinata about healing salves she made. Naruto felt obliged to butt in and mention that he had tried the salve and found it to be "Awesome", after which Kiba butted in to tell Naruto to shut up. Naruto then asked "Why don't you make me?" and a wrestling match ensued.

Tsunade tilted Shino's head as she finished reconnecting his nerves to his repaired eardrums. The genin winced.

"Does it still hurt?" she asked.

"No," the boy said, without altering his tone in the slightest. "I think I preferred the quiet. Thank you nonetheless."

She nodded and headed toward Edward Elric. "Your turn, kid," she called.

"No thanks," the prisoner said, shifting his weight as if he were preparing to flee.

Even if he did take off, he wouldn't get far. The Hyuga girl had mentioned that Elric had a deep slash across his back, as well as dozens of other small combat injuries. Apparently he wasn't able to reinforce his body with chakra during a fight, and he was a mass of bruises under his clothes.

"You need medical attention," Tsunade said.

"The fake blind girl already bandaged me," Ed said, nodding toward the Hyuga girl, who remained intent on the wrestling match.

"Ow! No fair! Your dog is biting my ear," shrieked one orange-clad participant.

"Well I can do better than a bandage, so quit squirming and come here."

"No," Ed said.

"You afraid of medics or something?" she asked, trying to sound teasing. She knew she wasn't pulling it off. She wasn't very good at dealing with stubborn patients. "I can help."

"Last time a ninja medic "helped" me, they stole my arm and locked me in a cell, so you can take your help and shove it."

"I'm not going to steal your arm, but I am going to fix your back," she growled, reaching for him. "Now we can do this the easy way or-"

The boy darted away. He was quick and had pretty good balance for someone with their arms tied behind their back, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge a sannin. She swept his legs out of under him and caught a hold of the wires that wrapped around his waist and wrists. She slowed his fall enough that he didn't slam his face into the ground.

"Get away!" he demanded, kicking at her. "I don't want your help. Let go!"

"Hey, brat!" she said, putting a knee on his lower back to keep him down, "You're injured and you're getting medical treatment whether you want it or not!"

"Get off!" Ed shouted. "Don't touch me!"

"I'm about two seconds from knocking you out, so you better-"

Purple sparks were traveling up the edge of her shirt. She realized Ed had grabbed the edge of the garment as he struggled to throw her off of him. She hadn't felt any chakra surge. She wondered what the hell was going on. She slapped at the sparks with her hand. Her shirt fell apart in ashy flakes.

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Jiraiya whirled as he felt a surge of chakra. There was a puff of smoke fading away, and he realized Tsunade had just teleported. He started towards Ed, who was getting up now that Tsunade wasn't there to hold him down.

"Brat, what did you-"

Suddenly there was a burst of killing intent so strong, Jiraiya was worried he might need to change his pants. The genin had all frozen like deer. Ed bent his legs and touched one of his feet to the wires binding him. His shoe melted off his foot, and then the wires snapped. He pressed his hands together, but whatever it was he planned to do was forgotten as a cloud of the Aburame's bugs swarmed him. Ed let out a rather undignified shriek before collapsing unconscious.

"Shizune!" Tsunade called from the brush by the side of the road. "And only Shizune! Bring me my pack and bring it here, now!"

Shizune scrambled to obey. Jiraiya started to follow the healer, but the stuttering Hyuga girl got in his way.

"T-th-the Lady Tsunade is f-fine s-s-sir," the girl said, her face covered in bulging veins. "S-sh-she had a-a-a good reason t-t-to want p-privacy."

"What reason is that?" Jiraiya asked, about to shove the girl aside.

By the time the girl started to choke out an answer, Tsunade was already marching back onto the road. It didn't take Jiraiya long to notice she was wearing a completely different shirt and jacket.

"Hey Granny, wha'd you do?" Naruto asked, looking from Ed to the Hokage-to-be.

"I was trying to help him," Tsunade said, through clenched teeth. "That disgusting little-"

Edward twitched in his sleep but didn't wake up.

"I-I-I'm sure h-he did not mean any harm," Hinata squeaked. "I-it is a n-n-non lethal distraction technique."

Tsunade stared at the girl for a long moment, as if considering squashing her. "Would you like to be the victim of such a technique in present company?" she asked archly.

The Hyuga girl's eyes darted over to Naruto and then rolled up into her head. Shino caught the fainting girl by the back of her jacket before she could face plant.

"I don't get it," Naruto declared.

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Granny Tsunade seemed a little less mad by the time Hinata woke up. She was still grumbling about perverts and making strangling gestures, so Naruto decided to give her some space.

Shizune took over healing Ed, since she seemed to think Tsunade would make things worse. Naruto hung around as she worked, watching the cut on Ed's back disappear. Ed didn't wake up when she was done, though. Shizune said that was because Shino had drained off chakra, and Ed would just have to regenerate that on his own.

Shino stood by, watching the healing as well. Naruto wanted to say something snippy to him, but he was kind of freaked out by the cloud of bugs he'd seen Shino produce. Naruto still felt like he had to say something, though.

"How come you guys didn't take his armor away when you tied him up?" Naruto asked, noticing the metal over Ed's shoulder as Shizune put the unconscious boy's clothes back in order.

Shino stared at Naruto for a long moment before responding. Shino's gaze was even creepier without his glasses.

"He is not wearing armor," Shino said. "He has a prosthetic limb."

"He's got a what?" Naruto asked.

"A fake arm," Shino said.

"What happened to his real one?" Naruto asked.

"It was not with him when we caught him," Shino said.

Naruto bent down and picked up Ed's right hand. He pulled off his glove and peered at the metal fingers, but Shizune shooed him away before he had a good look. Shizune then inspected the other prisoners, and declared they were all stable enough to transport.

The pervy sage used a seal to put the three knocked-out Sound ninja into a scroll so team eight could carry them more easily. Naruto hoped the scroll was still pretty heavy. He wasn't that mad at team eight for catching Ed, since they were under orders, and Ed must not have hated them, since he went back to help them.

Naruto didn't really understand what the pervy sage meant by "the right thing not being the right thing", but he didn't think he could get a better explanation out of the old weirdo. He thought it was blatantly obvious that Ed was cool and heroic.

Naruto had volunteered to carry Ed, even though the older boy was larger and heavier than he looked. The pervy sage said he would do it, though. Naruto figured that probably had something to do with his promise to keep Ed safe. If Naruto carried him, he probably would have dropped him at least a couple of times.

They started towards the village again, at a faster pace than before. Naruto didn't mind the rush. He wanted to find out what had happed to Kakashi-sensei while he was gone. Also, the sooner Tsunade became Hokage, the sooner she could let Ed go. Naruto hoped the old lady wasn't too mad about what happened. He looked over at her scowling face and winced. Everyone was grim and quiet as they ran. Naruto decided to fix that.

"Hey, Kiba! I learned an awesome new jutsu!" Naruto declared. "I bet you'll never guess what it does!"

"Does it make you less stupid?" Kiba asked.

"No!" Naruto said, kicking at the larger boy.

"Does it make you less loud?"

"No!" Naruto said. "Jutsu don't make you quiet."

"Actually," Shino said. "There are numerous stealth jutsu designed to do exactly that."

"Hu, really?" Naruto asked.

"Iruka-sensei gave several lectures on the topic in our last year at the academy," Shino said.

"I probably wasn't paying attention," Naruto said. "Hey, pervy sage, do you know any stealth jutsu?"

"I know hundreds! I'm a world renowned master-oops," Jiraiya said. He had started to make a dramatic gesture, but stopped as he started to drop Ed. "Anyway, you shouldn't go around showing off jutsu. Didn't they teach you anything about subterfuge at the academy?"

"Iruka-sensei gave numerous lectures on that topic as well," Shino said.

"Well, how are people going to recognize my greatness and make me Hokage if they don't see my amazing jutsu?" Naruto asked.

"Candidates get noticed in battle and on their mission records, not by showing off like street magicians," Tsunade said. "And they do well on the written test," she added.

Naruto paled. "There's a written test to be Hokage?"

The slug sannin nodded, smirking faintly. "Yes. It's three hundred pages long and you can't use a calculator on the math section."

Naruto looked horrified. He didn't really take in Shizune's giggling or Kiba's rolling eyes. Naruto looked around for help, and noticed Hinata. She looked away from Naruto right away, and he thought she looked like she'd been drinking a lot of bad milk. He recalled the strange girl offering to help him during the chunin exam.

"I'll just cheat off someone else's paper!" Naruto declared.

"You take it by yourself," Tsunade said.

"I'll sneak in some notes, then."

"You're strip-searched before the test," she said. "In fact, they send you into the room with nothing but your birthday suit and a pencil."

"Then I'll….I'll…" Naruto paused. "Hey, wait a minute. When did you take this test?"

"Years ago," Tsunade said. "After I became a jonin."

"Maybe they don't have it anymore," Naruto said. "I mean, you are really o-"

Jiraiya kicked Naruto in the butt before he could finish that sentence.

"I mean…uh can't you get rid of the test when you become Hokage?"

"Oh, I don't think I'll get rid of it," she said, grinning. "I was thinking of making it harder--four hundred pages at least. And the ten hour time limit is too generous. New candidates will have to finish in two hours."

"That's not fair!" Naruto shouted.

"It's very fair," she said. "We can't have a dummy for a Hokage."

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Fine! I'll still pass your stupid test. I'll just make 400 shadow clones and they can each do a page!"

"You can't make 400 clones. That's impossible," Kiba said.

"I can too!" Naruto said.

"Can not!"

"Can too!"

"Can not!"

"Watch me!"

"Naruto!" Jiraiya interrupted. "Do not make 400 shadow clones!"

"Awww!"

The rest of the trip was pretty boring, but by the time they got back to the village, Tsunade seemed to be over her bad mood. The chunin who were guarding the gates nearly fell over they were so busy bowing. Naruto couldn't wait till people looked at him that way.

To Naruto's relief, Granny seemed not to be mad at Ed anymore. She sent team eight to give the captured Sound ninja and their report to Ibiki, but she told Jiraiya to hang onto Ed, because they were taking him to the hospital. Team eight didn't look thrilled to be sent to the head of torture and interrogation empty-handed, but Hinata stopped looking like she was going to puke.

They couldn't go straight to Kakashi-sensei, though, because Tsunade had to check in with the councillors and give them her official "yes" about taking the job. They met two of the old farts at the ninja academy, on account of the Hokage tower being underground. The counselors noticed Ed hanging unconscious over Jiraiya's shoulder and gave him a glare worse than what Naruto usually got.

"Why isn't that criminal in restraints in the interrogation department?" Homura demanded.

"Jiraiya is watching him," Tsunade said. "I intend for him to take over the interrogation."

"Is he really suited for such a task?" Koharu asked.

"Of course I am," Jiraiya said, huffing. "Acquiring information is my specialty."

"I was under the impression you were not a fan of torture," Koharu said.

The pervy sage made a sour face, but then grinned. "A person as charming as me doesn't need to use torture. Troubled young men are always coming to me for my sage advice. I'm sure this kid will be talking my ear off as soon as he wakes up."

The counselors did not look won over.

"Besides," Jiraiya said. "I've been looking for info on him while we were finding Tsunade. This kid's apparently got something going on with the Death God. You think interrogation will be able to contain it if he manages to summon that? It seems they had trouble just keeping him in a cell."

Naruto just looked confused. He was pretty sure he hadn't seen the Death God anywhere around Ed. He thought maybe the pervy sage was making something up to help Ed out, so he kept his mouth shut.

"If he is such a danger, it would be better if he never woke up," Koharu said.

Naruto saw red for a second. "It'd be better if you never woke up, you old-"

"Brat!" Tsunade interrupted with a small burst of killing intent. "You're shutting your mouth now."

Naruto gritted his teeth but obeyed.

"So you don't trust my judgment in this matter?" Tsunade asked the councillors.

"I don't believe you understand the situation," Koharu said. "The boy has done great harm to the infrastructure of the village. Not only did he punch holes in the village walls, but he sank the Hokage tower and the interrogation department. He attacked a secure facility and seriously injured numerous members of the village."

"Who was injured?" Jiraiya asked.

"Ono Hotaka, a chunin on guard at a research facility nearly lost his arm in a fight with Elric," Koharu said. "He required a great deal of surgery to save his hand."

"I'll take a look at the report," Tsunade said. "Who else?"

The councillors exchanged looks.

"Numerous implies more than one," Tsunade said. "Who else was injured?"

"Uchiha Sasuke," Koharu said.

"What!?" Naruto demanded, looking from the councillors to Ed.

"What was the extent of the Uchiha brat's injuries?" Jiraiya asked.

"First degree burns and flash blindness," Koharu said.

"But he's fine now?" Tsunade asked.

Eventually Koharu nodded. Tsunade gritted her teeth.

"I'm going to go take a look at Hatake Kakashi, and see if I can't figure out what Uchiha Itachi did to him. I suppose I'll accept the position of Hokage if you still want me for the job, but you better have all your bullshit straightened out by the time I get back from the hospital."

She turned to go, and Jiraiya, Shizune and Naruto fell in behind her.

"But we have to make preparations for your appointment, and the guests and official must be summoned for the celebration-"

"As long as you invite_ sake_ to the celebration, I don't care who comes," Tsunade said.

Her bad mood was back, but Naruto was pretty sure it wasn't directed at Ed any longer. He stuck his tongue out at the councillors and then took off after her.

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Ibiki was not happy. He handed over the scroll of sealed prisoners to Masao, with orders to find the corpses team eight hadn't managed to carry back. He went back to glaring at the genin retrieval team. The Aburame had succinctly described their mission, and the soon-to-be fifth Hokage's new orders.

"She intends to keep the prisoner at the hospital?" Ibiki repeated.

"Yes," Aburame Shino said. "Lady Tsunade wishes for you to meet her there at your earliest convenience to discuss Elric's case."

Ibiki was about to dismiss them when the Hyuga girl charged. She popped up in front of Ibiki, with a bow that only by the barest margin avoided being a head butt. The shaking genin babbled out a garbled stuttering sentence that even Ibiki didn't catch. Then she stood there either unaware she was incoherent, or too terrified to repeat herself. He'd caught the words 'Edward' and 'saved us'.

Ibiki was getting less happy.

The Aburame boy stepped to her side.

"We feel it is pertinent to reiterate that the prisoner, Edward Elric, had the opportunity to escape when our team was attacked by nine Sound ninja, while within Fire Country's borders. Instead of leaving us to our fate, he freed himself from his bonds and assisted Hyuga Hinata, who was being overwhelmed. At her request, he also helped incapacitate a machine one of the Sound nin was using that had disabled Inuzuka Kiba and myself. Had he not assisted us, it is likely we would have died."

"What's your point?" Ibiki asked.

"Please d-d-don't hurt him," Hinata said.

"It was our intention to solicit leniency," Shino said.

Either the Inuzuka boy or his dog yipped in agreement.

"Leniency?" Ibiki said.

"To be compassionate or merciful," Shino supplied. "To execute your orders without being as strict or harsh as you are normally inclined."

"I know what the word means, brat," Ibiki said.

The Aburame just stood there looking at him. Ibiki was glad that the bug-using clan had never produced a traitor to the village. Psychological pressure and intimidation were wasted on them.

"I heard you," Ibiki said, finally, feeling like he had lost to the brats by speaking first.

Shino Aburame nodded and led the other two teenagers out the door.

He glared after them for a long moment, and then started for the surface. He already had Edward's file on his desk, so there was no reason to delay. He picked it up, and headed for the hospital. As he walked to the new exit, through what used to be the roof of the building, he only got angrier. By the time he made it to the hospital, he had worked up enough killing intent to knock out a chunin. The first nurse he asked for directions fainted before she could answer. A hardier co-worker steered him to the secure wing.

"Lord Jiraiya, Lady Tsunade," Ibiki said, as he walked into the room.

Edward Elric was secured to a hospital bed, with a half-dozen monitors around him. He was unconscious, but everything looked stable. Ibiki handed over the prisoner's file. Tsunade glanced through it, and then handed it to Jiraiya. He paged through it slowly, letting the tension build.

"I was wondering," Lord Jiraiya said, in an overly casual tone. "How my orders to "treat and hold" this brat were reinterpreted as "disassemble and torment".

"He was and still is a security concern. He was belligerent and refused to honestly answer even the basic questions about his identity and origins. He could have avoided a lot of unpleasantness had he simply told the truth."

"What kind of unpleasantness?" Lady Tsunade asked.

"He was not harmed," Ibiki said. "He was placed in full restraints after he used….some sort of jutsu in the interrogation room. He escaped before even minimal pressures were applied."

"What kind of jutsu did he use?" Jiraiya asked.

"I grabbed him and he dissolved my coat," Ibiki said. "He threatened to remove my arm if I touched him again."

"Melted clothes, hu?" Jiraiya said, looking over at Tsunade who was scowling and blushing slightly. "It probably wasn't a big deal, right?"

"I was not harmed, and the reaction didn't spread to my other garments," Ibiki said.

Jiraiya looked over at Tsunade. "See, princess, you're taking it too personally."

A spike of killing intent told him he was already taking it too far.

"Elric attacked you?" Ibiki asked.

"He was pretty banged up when we came upon the genin hauling his ass back to the village. Tsunade thought he needed medical treatment, and she wouldn't take no for an answer," Jiraiya said, smirking.

The soon-to-be Hokage backhanded Jiraiya into the wall.

"I'm countermanding whatever the standing orders are for the prisoner. Jiraiya is taking over with Elric. You and the security staff can question him, but Jiraiya will be there, and no torture. Got it?" Tsunade asked as she poked Jiraiya with her toe.

Ibiki nodded sharply. He was not happy.

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Kakashi raised his arms and opened his hands, flexing and testing muscle tone. It wasn't good. The medical staff had kept him safe from atrophy in the month he'd spent lying on his back, but they couldn't keep him in fighting shape.

When he first woke up, he thought he had seen Gai and Lady Tsunade in the room. There may have been orange and white things, maybe people, in the background. But they were gone in a blur, well before he could get briefed on the current situation, and Kakashi was loath to call in a nurse to get caught up on gossip. He sat up in bed and tried to get his body working again. He just hoped someone would stop by soon to tell him what the hell was going on.

"Hey, you're awake!" Naruto shouted from the doorway.

Kakashi winced. Partly because of the noise, and partly because he couldn't believe he'd gotten rusty to the point that Naruto could sneak up on him.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" the orange clad maniac said, charging into Kakashi's room and skidding to a stop at the foot of his bed. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! We found Granny Tsunade and I convinced her to come back and fix you and be Hokage! Is she done fixing your brain? Do we have training today? Hey, you smell kind of bad. Guess what jutsu the pervy sage taught me!"

"Hu?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah, Granny had to go sign more papers and stuff, and they're having a big party or something the day after tomorrow. Iruka-sensei said that maybe I should talk to Ed to see if he would put the Hokage Tower back so they could have the ceremony there. Iruka sensei bought me ramen for lunch. Hey, did you have lunch yet? Do you want me to get you something?"

"No, thanks," Kakashi said. "I think I'm going to go back to sleep for a while."

"You're so lazy, sensei!" Naruto said.

"I'm in the hospital. I get to be lazy."

"Blah! Well I'm gonna visit Ed now, so I'll see you at the team meeting tomorrow, right?" Naruto said, as he started for the door again. "Later, Sensei!"

Kakashi watched the door for a while after his student had left. He slowly dragged his legs over the side of the bed and got up. He took a few shaky steps, found his balance, and started pacing the room.

"Wait a second," he muttered during his third lap to the door and back. "Who the hell is Ed?"

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**Author's Note: **Yeah, it's a little shorter than the last chapter. I re-wrote it three times and I'm still not completely happy with it. I tried to end it with less of a cliffhanger than usual.

**Next time on **_**The Truth Decays**_**: **The Village elders get up to nefarious shenanigans, Gai comes to the rescue, sort of, and Ed starts to wish he was back in his cell. Stay tuned, it should be up next week. And don't forget to review!


	13. Chapter 13

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 13**

It was pitch black, but not like being blindfolded. There was no pressure on his eyes. There was nothing between him and the light. There was no light. He tried to touch his hands to his face, but if his hands were even attached to his body, he couldn't move them, or feel them. All he could feel was that he was falling.

Ed knew that he was dreaming.

It didn't make him feel any better.

It was there again. He couldn't see or hear or even smell it, but he knew it was there. For a long time it was just there next to him. He tried to be quieter, to be smaller, and less noticeable.

It whispered in his ear.

_**Are you lost, little brother? **_

For the longest time he couldn't remember how to talk.

"I'm a little turned around."

_**I could show you a way out.**_

"What will it cost me?"

_**Don't worry about the cost, little brother, it said. What are small favors between family?**_

"We aren't family," Ed said, and immediately regretted it.

_**Those who eat souls are not all sprung from the same womb, but you and I are brothers now.**_

The thing put its hand on the back of his head. It was a lot bigger than him, if the hand was any indication. The fingers wrapped all the way around his face, covering his eyes, and the thumb pressed in under his jaw. Ed started to struggle, and then it threw him forward.

He fell head over feet into sunlight. He landed on his hands and knees and didn't have the strength to rise. Instead, he slumped back on his heels and looked around. He was in a forest, more humid and tropical than he was used to, but there was nothing obviously alien about the trees and plants, or the ants that started to crawl up his ankles.

Suddenly it was there in front of him. It was at least twelve feet tall. Ed thought it was probably male, but it wore flowing white robes that covered it from throat to ground. He couldn't see its feet. Its mouth was filled with blackened fangs. Its skin was colorless. Its face was boney and a pair of horns sprouted up through the rivers of white hair that sprung from its skull. Ed started to get up, and it laid a hand on his head.

_**There is a soul nearby**_, it said. _**You aren't bound by the gods of this place. If you fetch it for us, we can eat.**_

Ed looked past the creature to see an old man with a woven basket peering out at them from behind a tree.

"I'm on a diet," Ed mumbled.

The creature laughed and vanished. A few minutes later the man with the basket approached him, babbling in a language Ed didn't even recognize. Ed gave up trying to understand the stranger. He lay down on his side and slept. But it wasn't real sleep, because he hadn't really been awake. He waited in the darkness, and hoped something would wake him up.

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**Konoha** **Hospital…**

Jiraiya sat watching the monitors in the kid's room. Tsunade had left long ago to organize a meeting, but Shizune had checked back in, and said the boy's chakra was back to normal, and that he could wake up at any moment. Ibiki wasn't too happy about the new restrictions on his investigation. He'd gone back to the interrogation department to pout and plot, though he did hang around for about half an hour to glare at Ed's unconscious form. Naruto came back as Ibiki was leaving, and immediately began to drive Jiraiya nuts.

Naruto poked at the monitoring equipment. He paced the room. He asked Jiraiya questions about sealing and didn't pay attention to the answers. He summoned a small toad and argued with it about the best topping for ramen. And that was all in the first ten minutes.

Jiraiya sent him to bother his teammates so he wouldn't have to strangle him. He supposed Naruto was bored enough to obey. The brat just wasn't designed to sit vigil. He left a large, paper-wrapped lump on Edward's bedside table, after scowling and warning Jiraiya not to open it.

Jiraiya already knew what was in it, of course. It was some goofy little metal figure in armor--the kind of toy that would impress a five-year-old because it had movable arms and sharp edges. Naruto had won it in the festival city they'd traveled to the day after the attack.

Jiraiya was considering throwing some water on the unconscious teenager when Edward twitched and started awake. His eyes weren't really focused, but he was obviously aware that he was tied down. He twisted and pulled at his restraints, rattling the bed. He let out a string of curses that Jiraiya only half-recognized.

"Good morning to you, too," Jiriaya said.

"Up yours," Ed growled, giving his bonds another tug.

"You're certainly in a mood," Jiriaya said. "You aren't even in the interrogation department."

"If I was, I'd bring the whole damn thing down on your head."

"Well, lucky for me we're in the hospital," Jiraiya said. "What's with the fear of casualties, anyway? Are you religious or something?"

"No," Ed said. "God and I don't get along at all."

"Which god?" Jiraiya asked. "I heard from a barkeep outside Tanzuka that you and the Death God are on pretty good terms."

The teenager looked down and Jiraiya thought he looked a bit guilty.

"In fact," Jiraiya continued. "I heard that a friend of yours named Kioshi claims that the Death God is down-right fond of you. Though it didn't show up when Itachi was punching holes in your torso."

"I'm not 'on good terms' with that thing, and I could care less what it thinks of me," Ed said.

Jiraiya could tell from Ed's face that he regretted speaking at all. It was now much too late to just say "I have no idea what you're talking about." It wasn't really the direction Jiraiya had intended the conversation to go, but if the target was willing to talk about something, he wasn't going to risk him shutting up.

"So you do know each other?" Jiraiya asked. "I don't ask just out of curiosity. The Death God and our village have a history. Our last two Hokages ended up summoning it for aid in battle."

Ed looked sharply at him. "And whose souls did they feed it?"

"Their own," Jiraiya said.

Ed looked down again. He sighed a little before looking back.

"I don't know anything that could help you get souls back, if that's what you're after," Ed said.

"So what exactly is your relationship with it?" Jiraiya asked.

"I got lost and asked it directions," Ed said.

"Lost where?"

"Lost in nowhere," Ed said, and he looked so haunted that Jiraiya couldn't quite bring himself to call the boy a liar.

"The 'Alchemy' that you do, that power doesn't come from the Death God?" Jiraiya asked.

"No," Ed said.

"Then why would the Death God have anything to do with you?" Jiraiya asked.

"We just shop at the same grocery store," Ed said.

"What the hell does that mean?" Jiraiya asked.

"Nothing," Ed said. "It doesn't mean anything. Can I leave yet?"

Jiraiya sighed. "Kid, if you were just some dumb farmer who had wandered over the border without papers, we could have handled this easier. Even if you were a rogue ninja, there are procedures in place. But we don't know what the hell you are, and if we let you go, by the time you get to our border, every ninja nation and his grandma will be looking for you. You couldn't even get away from three genin and a puppy. Where the hell do you think you could go?"

"I could've gotten away," Ed said, scowling.

"You had an opportunity to escape," Jiraiya said. "But that's long gone. We need to know who you are and what you're about before we make any decisions. What harm could it do to tell us a little bit about your background?"

Ed rolled his eyes.

"Where are you from, kid?" Jiraiya asked. "Can't you give me some basic details?"

"Resembool, an eastern province of Amestris," Ed said. "Our major exports are wool, hay, wheat, and automail."

He didn't seem to be lying. If it was the truth though, it was meaningless truth.

"Can you point it out on a map?" Jiraiya asked.

"It's not on your map," Ed said.

"You came from one of the outlands?" Jiraiya asked. "The people I talked to said you fell out of a hole in the air. Was that some kind of teleportation jutsu?"

"Something like that," Ed said.

He gave his bonds another tug, as if they might have come loose while he spoke. The kid had been keeping a low profile in the elemental countries if the barkeep's second-hand information was accurate. Jiraiya supposed he could have come to their lands to hide from something, but he didn't seem too particularly concerned about who saw him.

"You can't get back home," Jiraiya said, realizing.

Ed looked at him with a flat expression and then flopped back against the bed. It must have been quite a task to flop while tied down, but somehow he managed it.

"If you told me how you got here, maybe explained how your Alchemy worked, I might be able to help you get home," Jiraiya said.

There was hope in the boy's eyes for a moment, but he crushed it quickly. "Yeah, right," Ed said. "You want to help me out cause you're so damn nice."

"We aren't nice, but we aren't quite as bad as you act," Jiraiya said. "And you pouting and scowling isn't going to get you out of here any faster. Your skills are interesting, since you don't use chakra, but they're not really more powerful than ours. You draw out an array, or use the tattoos on your hands and feet to direct energy and bring about change. We've figured that much out. Why don't you just explain your energy source?"

"I will never teach any of you anything about Alchemy," Ed said. "I will escape or I'll die. There is no compromise!"  
It was Jiraiya's turn to roll his eyes. "You don't have to get so melodramatic."

Ed scowled. "Up yours."

Jiraiya sighed. "We're back to this again, hu?"

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Naruto sat on the roof of the hospital. He wanted to go back and check on Ed again. But if Ed wasn't awake yet, he would end up feeling worse. He didn't like looking at unconscious people, whether they were knocked out or just sleeping. He knew he drove his teammates crazy on overnight missions, "accidentally" waking people up to make sure they could wake up.

Naruto sighed. He didn't really know what to do when Ed did wake up. It would be great if the council would let Ed go and Naruto could show him around and maybe they could train together and when Naruto was Hokage he could hire Ed as Konoha's official builder guy. It would be awesome! But Naruto did understand that they would not let Ed go until he told them where he was really from and stuff like that. He just had to convince Ed that it would be okay to tell them, or at least Granny Tsunade. He didn't really know how he'd get Ed to talk, though. And he didn't know how to make them less hostile towards Ed, either.

Clowning worked on Granny Tsunade and Jiraiya to a point, but he couldn't even get the village councilors to crack a smile. Telling Ibiki off to his face seemed to impress the interrogation master, but Ed was already a very in-your-face guy, and Ibiki obviously hated him. Naruto didn't really have many other strategies for dealing with the adults who held power over him. He was too honest to be a suck up, and too short tempered to be a doormat. And he knew he wasn't smart and skilled enough to be a cool, moody kid that adults catered to, yet.

Iruka had made it sound very simple when he told Naruto to explain to Ed why he should quit being mad and work with Leaf Village. But now the discussion over ramen didn't seem all that convincing. As Naruto thought back on it, it felt like he would be telling Ed just to let people walk all over him.

He was starting to get a headache when he saw Ino walking by on the street below. He hopped off the roof and dropped toward her. She noticed his shadow and leapt away with a shriek, dropping the carton of bouquets she carried, as she pulled a knife. She recognized Naruto as he landed on the road, but didn't put the weapon away.

"You idiot! You made me drop my delivery." Ino shrieked.

"I did not!" Naruto said.

"You tried to jump on me! From the roof!"

"I wasn't gonna land on you!" Naruto objected. "I'd have missed you by at least a foot!"

"A foot!" Ino screamed. "A foot is not an acceptable margin!"

"Well, sorrrrrry!" Naruto said. "Hey, have you seen Sakura around today?"

"You almost fell on me and broke my neck! I'm not gonna tell you anything about anyone!" Ino replied.

"What if I threatened you?" Naruto asked.

"You? Threaten me?" Ino said. "That's a laugh."

"Ok, what if I bribed you?" Naruto asked.

"You don't have anything I want!"

"Hmmmmm," Naruto said, resting his chin on his knuckles as he thought.

"Hmmmm?" Ino shouted. "What do you mean, hmmmm? First you try to jump on me and now you ignore me!"

"I was trying to think of how you would get someone to answer your questions if they're not afraid of you and you don't have anything they want," Naruto said.

"Wait," Ino said. "You scared me so you could practice interrogation techniques on someone with a particular mindset?"

"No," Naruto said, waving a hand. "I jumped because I was trying to look cool. But you got so mad you reminded me of Ed."

"Ed?" Ino asked. "That nut job that sunk the Hokage tower?"

"Yeah!" Naruto said. "He's my friend, but he won't answer any questions that the security jerks are asking, so they won't let him out. But he's mad and all he does is curse and stuff. They threaten him and he won't say anything. They tried to bribe him and stuff, but he doesn't care, but if he doesn't say something soon, it's just going to get worse."

"Maybe you should get a pretty girl to ask him," Ino suggested. "Guys usually talk too much around pretty girls they want to impress."

"That's a great idea! Hey Ino, do you know any pretty girls?"

The killing intent washed over him, and for once he was quick enough on the uptake.

Naruto gulped. "I'd ask you, but…heh heh….you're busy with your flowers and stuff. Did I mention I'm sorry that I almost jumped on your head?" Naruto said. "And that you're pretty."

Ino finally put the knife away, which Naruto took as a good sign. She went to collect her flowers and Naruto helped her pick up the ones that had popped out of the carton. Ino dropped the bouquets off at the hospital gift shop and followed Naruto to the secure wing. Naruto snuck a few looks at her as they walked. He thought she looked more angry and pinch-faced than pretty, but if she didn't get any information, Naruto supposed he could try again with a prettier girl, or maybe he could use his ninja centerfold technique.

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Ino normally wouldn't get involved with any project of Naruto's, usually because it resulted in angry adults, punishments, and everyone covered in paint. But she knew Uchiha Sasuke wanted information on Edward Elric, and she could get way ahead of Sakura if she got it out of the kid first.

She didn't think it would be too hard. After all, she was the prettiest girl in her academy class. Her attempt at seduction hadn't worked on Hyuga Neji during the chunin exam, but maybe he didn't like girls or something. Ino still smirked when she thought of the beating that jerk Neji had taken at Naruto's hands. She checked her reflection in the hospital windows as they walked, and grinned.

The guards looked wary of letting Naruto into the secure wing, saying he would disturb the peace of the patients. Naruto responded by shouting that he knew how to be quiet. The guards looked ready to throw him bodily from the hospital when an old man with a lot of white hair leaned out of a room down the hall.

"Hey pervy sage!" Naruto bellowed. "Tell them to let us through! I want to see if Ed is awake."

"Everyone in the building is awake now, brat!" the old man said. "Let him through."

"And Ino!" Naruto added.

"Yeah, yeah, and Ino," the old man said. "Can't forget Ino," he muttered as he disappeared back into the room.

The guards got out of their way and Naruto bolted down the hall. Ino walked after him at a dignified pace. The old man had taken up the only visitor's chair, and Naruto was in his face.

"Hey pervy sage! Why's Ed still tied up?"

"Stop calling me that!" the old man said.

It took Ino another moment to remember where she'd seen the old guy before; her father had a picture of the Legendary Sannin. The old guy was one of them: Jiraiya, the toad sage. Ino didn't know if she should bow, or order Naruto to shut up or what, but the S-class old guy wasn't paying much attention to her, so she decided to skip it. The boy tied to the bed was looking at her, though, apparently trying to recognize her.

He looked pretty much the same as when she'd seen him in the restaurant, trying to get away from Maito Gai. His hair was blonder, and he had two arms now, though one of them was obviously metal. His eyes widened for a moment, and she thought she saw recognition on his face, but he didn't say anything.

Then again, Naruto was talking enough for three or four people.

"And this is Ino, who was in my class at the academy. She's on team ten. She thinks you're really cool and she wants to know how you sunk all those buildings."

"I can speak for myself, Naruto!" Ino said.

"Oh," Naruto said. "I thought you were nervous or something, since you were just standing there. Oh, yeah, Ed, are you single? Cause Ino needs a boyfriend."

Everyone in the room just stopped and gawked at the orange-clad motor mouth.

"I said I'd meet him, not marry him!" Ino shrieked.

"Oh, don't get mad, Ino," Naruto said, turning away from Ed to give her an over-obvious wink.

Ino put her face in her hands. She supposed Naruto thought he was helping her charm information out of her target. But all he was doing was making things awkward. As if she needed to be set up with a guy like some kind of desperate Sakura! And now lord Jiraiya was smirking and he'd probably burst out laughing any moment. Ino didn't want to be made a fool of, so it was time to take charge.

"I don't know if you remember me," Ino said to Ed in her best shy-girl voice. "But I was there when you got away from my sensei and that crazy green jonin Gai. That was so cool. We still can't figure out how you did it."

Ed shrugged, apparently unimpressed. "Life's full of mysteries."

"My teammates and I were arguing over how you got out. Choji thought you must've used a genjutsu and just hid until everyone left. But I don't think two jonin would've missed that. Shikamaru though you went through the wall and then fixed it up after you. I thought you must've used a teleportation jutsu," Ino said, tilting her head so her eyes sparkled.

Ed just looked at her.

"Can you at least tell me which of us is closest to being right?" Ino asked.

"Was Shikamaru the fat kid or the sleepy-looking kid?" Ed asked.

"The sleepy-looking one," Ino said.

"That kid should get checked for a thyroid disorder if he's always like that," Ed said.

"What about my question?" Ino asked, struggling to sound interesting.

Ed shrugged again. "Your question was dumb."

Naruto burst out laughing and since he was closer than Ed, Ino shoved him. He fell over, but unfortunately didn't look injured. She turned and stormed out the door. This was the last time she ever helped Naruto with anything. She'd just tell Sasuke where Ed was. Naruto had been looking for Sakura, so she probably didn't know yet. She'd still be a little ahead of her rival. She didn't really have time for this, anyway.

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**The Hokage Tower…**

Jiraiya's latest report had more information in it than Ibiki had obtained. Of course, more didn't necessarily mean true. As far as Tsunade (or rather Shizune, since she was the one sent to the archives to check) could tell, there was no record of anyplace called Amestris. And the only big wool-producing nations were Cloud and Stone.

Tsunade flipped through Edward's file as she waited. The Death God issue hadn't been cleared up to anyone's satisfaction, either. A crazy old woodsman wasn't the most reliable source of information, especially when his words were second-hand. They'd posted an alert for Kioshi, but Tsunade wasn't holding her breath on that one.

At ten past the hour, the three major councilors arrived. They insisted they be informed of any change or progress regarding Ed, and a paper report wasn't good enough. They insisted on a face-to-face meeting. After the traditional exchange of greetings, they started in on her.

"You can't make decisions based simply on your intuition," Homura said. "The boy is dangerous, too dangerous to be granted any sort of liberty within the village."

"So we boot him out of the village," Tsunade said. "He has yet to express a desire to stay."

"So you wish to make him available to the enemies of our village, despite his obvious vendetta?" Danzo asked.

Tsunade glared at the old councilor. He'd been a thorn in the butt of every Hokage for the last thirty years. She linked her fingers and stretched out her arms, popping all her joints.

"Have you actually met the kid?" she asked. "He's reactionary and shortsighted, but I have yet to see evidence of a vendetta. The first time he escaped, all he did was escape. He left a mess, true, but it's not like he went on a rampage. All the reports indicate he'll fight back if attacked, but he's loath to use lethal force. The only people he has killed were Sound ninja, and that he did to protect a team of genin, who should not have been sent after him in the first place if he is as dangerous as you say."

The councilors glared at her. She wondered if they ever had any other expression on their faces.

"We're making enemies we don't need," Tsunade said. "It's clear from his medical records that Edward Elric is not from around here. Do we really want to piss off his people if they come looking for him?"

"If he is the scout for an outside power," Danzo said, "That is all the more reason to hold him for interrogation and study. If there are more like him coming, we must be prepared."

So much for portraying the little bastard as an ambassador, they just twisted everything she said to make him the scout for an invading army. The elemental countries hadn't faced outside invasion in at least 500 years, unless you count the demons, who came and left as they pleased. And though Tsunade was fairly certain that Edward had been coughed up by the devil himself to torment her, he probably didn't count as a demon.

"So what do you think we could prepare for?" Tsunade countered. "An army of unlicensed builders?"

"He destroys as much as he builds," Homura said.

"Actually," Tsunade said. "Even counting the estimated cost of fixing the wall and rebuilding the Hokage's tower above ground, the village has a net gain."

"He could be building popular support for an occupying force using propaganda," Koharu said. "The same strategy was used in Rain country."

"Alright," Tsunade said. "Do you have any ideas that don't involve locking him up forever or dissecting him for study?"

"We could have him broken," Danzo said. "If Ibiki or another equally competent torture expert were given free reign, I'm sure we'd have all the information we could ask for within a month."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Next idea?"

"We could acquire leverage," Danzo said. "If you won't allow us to threaten him with physical discomfort, we could bring in a few of the people whom he repaired buildings for. If they were threatened, then he might give us some information."

"So you want to obtain information from a person you think is a threat, by playing on his altruism?" Tsunade said.

She was about three seconds away from ripping off Danzo's arm and beating him to death with it. And he just kept on talking.

"Both strategies I've mentioned have been used by the village in the past, and they have worked. Even your grandfather-"

"My grandfather allowed such things during war, against those who had proved themselves to be enemies of Leaf," Tsuande said. "He wouldn't allow civilians to be used in that way and neither will I."

"This Village will not last long if you are mired down with naïve fantasies about peaceful coexistence. The other hidden villages are-"

"Then go join another village!" Tsunade snapped. "You people dragged me back here, so now you can live to regret it. I've made my decision. Edward Elric is now the official ambassador from Amestris. He now has limited immunity. Maito Gai has volunteered to "host" our new guest. He'll keep him out of trouble, and maybe convince him that our village isn't composed entirely of sadistic nut jobs. If he still wants to leave after a few weeks, then we'll let him pick a border and toss him over."

"You can't be serious!" Koharu said. "What if he sinks another building?"

"Then we'll toss him sooner rather than later," Tsunade said. "As long as he isn't attacking people, I'm going to let it slide."

"You can't be serious," Danzo said.

"I'm as serious as a hangover," Tsunade said. "And if you try to go behind my back on this, there will be consequences."

"I'm sure," Danzo said. "If you do not wish for me to provide you with anymore ideas to ignore, I have other things to do."

Tsunade waved her hand in dismissal. When he was gone, Koharu approached her desk, frowning.

"That was not wise, Lady Hokage," the old woman said. "You will need his support to maintain order in the village."

"I need his support like I need a kunai in my back," Tsunade said.

"It may be one or the other," Koharu said.

After they walked out, Tsunade kicked back in her chair and put her feet up on the desk. She couldn't just give Danzo a chakra-enhanced punt over the village wall. He had too much support from the other village councilors. She knew right away that he'd do everything in his power to sabotage her, and while most of the village recognized her, she'd become a famous stranger in her decade away from her home village. She didn't know anyone aside from Shizune and Jiraiya who she could implicitly trust, and they were almost as far out of the loop of daily life as she. She'd have to start gaining allies with political clout quick or she'd end up a figurehead. She hadn't wanted this job, but she'd be damned if she just smiled and waved and let the council run the show.

And if she had a kid who could instantly repair the battle damage so common to hidden villages, it would go a long way to gaining popular support.

She just needed to gain his trust, and control the urge to bash his brains in.

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**Konoha** **Hospital…**

The sun had set, but that actually made things more complicated. During the day, there were civilians and distracted visitors wandering the halls, calling attention to themselves, stomping over the sounds of other footsteps. The main issue was the guards, but one of them was their agent, and the other was oblivious to genjutsu. The security cameras were already disabled.

The target didn't wake when they entered the room, or when the first agent took a handful of powder from a pouch in his vest, and blew it across the sleeping teenager's face. The target snorted loudly, and shifted as far as his bonds would allow, but he didn't open his eyes. A few minutes after inhaling the drug, the monitors began to change: brainwaves slowed, synapses didn't fire even as the agents untied the target and rolled him over. They pulled open the target's hospital gown, exposing his back. There was already a tattoo there. Perhaps it was some kind of seal. Whatever it was, they could go around it. There was still plenty of skin to work with.

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Ed came to in the hospital, feeling like he'd been twisted up like a pretzel and then stomped on. He tried to remember how he'd ended up there this time, but there was nothing there. He sat up, rather surprised that he could. His limbs weren't removed or strapped down. Of course, if he wasn't restrained, that probably meant-

"Edward! The power of youth has seen you through!"

Gai paused, looking at the empty bed, and then under it to find the reclusive Alchemist.

"Is something wrong?" Gai asked as Ed abandoned what little shelter the bed provided.

"Don't know," Ed said. "How long have I been here?"

"You were brought back to the village a day ago," Gai said. "Do you not remember?"

Ed squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at them. He had some vague memory of that occurring, and talking to that old guy Jiraiya and that girl and Naruto, but it felt like weeks ago.

"Did they give me drugs or something?" he asked.

"Not to my knowledge," Gai said, snatching the chart up from the hook on the end of Ed's bed. "According to this, they did not. But they do not always write everything down."

Ed grunted in response.

"I'm sure it will be alright, Edward," Gai said. "They wouldn't have let you out if they still thought you were a threat. Whatever you told them, under drugs or not, must have convinced them of your noble spirit and moral fortitude! And though you probably had to endure much unpleasantness, the Hokage has agreed to your conditional release into our most glorious village."

"But I can't leave all the way, hu?" Ed said.

"No, but why would you wish to? After experiencing the youthful glory of our village, I am certain you will want to live here forever!"

"Uh-hu," Ed said.

"But if you still wish to leave, after a month, the 5th Hokage has agreed to grant you passage outside Fire country's borders," Gai said.

Ed raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't speak. Maybe Gai still believe it, but Ed didn't.

"There are a few conditions, as you guessed," Gai added. "The first being that you have been released into my custody, so you must be with me or an assigned chaperone at all times. Also, you must not alter any more buildings without the council's permission, and of course, you cannot injure any citizens of Leaf, though that last rule is hardly worth mentioning, as we have all witnessed your peaceful and forgiving character!"

"Uh-hu."

"Come, Edward! Gather your things! I will show you to my most youthful residence where you will be staying!"

"Alright, get out so I can change."

Gai left. Ed was tempted to just melt through the wall and run for it, but he wasn't really feeling up to running. Ed's head was still muzzy, but he was feeling almost normal as he dug through a bag of clothes he found in the cabinet next to the bed. It was the stuff that had been in his bag when he had fought Itachi and the shark boy.

He found his watch and notebooks in the bag as well. He supposed it was a good will gesture. He was out of this dump as soon as he could get his brain working, but he supposed…no. No, he wouldn't even give them points for trying.

Ed really didn't like the idea of people removing his clothes for him, and it seemed to happen every other day in this damn village. He pulled off the hospital gown and noticed gauze wrapped around his chest, holding a bandage to the middle of his back. And now that he'd noticed it, he noticed it stung. He went to the window and watched his reflection as he pulled the gauze away.

"Are you f**king kidding me!" Ed shouted.

There was a knock on the door. "Is everything alright, Edward?" Gai called.

Ed clapped his hands and pressed them to the glass to make the window into a better mirror. He turned and twisted, looking at the new mark in the middle of his back. It was under the sacrificial array Father had put on him. It looked like a normal tattoo, rather than an array. It was just a stylized cross with some lines coming out to the sides.

"Edward?" Gai called again.

Ed hopped into his pants and stormed over to the door. He yanked it open, letting the knob crack the plaster as it swung into the wall.

"What the hell does this mean?" Ed demanded turning around to show the tattoo. "And if it means 'Property of Konoha' so help me, I'm going to level this shit hole town!"

He turned back to look at Gai, who was worryingly silent.

"What?" Ed demanded.

"They did not tell me they were going to do this to you…" Gai said.

"What does it mean?" Ed demanded.

"It is a curse seal," Gai said. "The caged bird seal. It is meant to ensure obedience."

"Well f**k that!" Ed said.

He clapped his hands together, already theorizing about breaking down the foreign particles under his skin. He couldn't heal worth a damn, but-

Gai caught his hands before he could touch the mark. "Please wait, Edward. That type of curse seal will activate if you tamper with it."

"Activate how?"

"The ones I have seen cause excruciating pain, blindness, and then death."

"They have a lot of ensured obedience in your wonderful village?" Ed growled, trying to twist out of Gai's grasp.

"No, only one clan in the village uses that seal, and I've never heard of it being used on anyone outside that family."

"That's one fxxked up family."

"There's really no need for that kind of language."

"I fxxking disagree."

"Please calm down," Gai begged. "I will speak with the Hokage as soon as possible. We will find out what is going on. Please promise me you won't tamper with it until I can find out who put it there and if it is active."

"Fine," Ed said. "I promise. So let go; I've got to find a shirt."

The jonin nodded and released him. Ed kicked the door closed and stomped over to his bag again. After a moment of glaring and mumbling, he pressed his hands together very quietly, recirculating energy.

He pressed his hands to the curse mark.

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**Author's Note:** It took a little over a week to get this chapter out. Sorry about that. The chapter just seemed too angsty in its first incarnation. I don't know if the comedy relief worked or just slowed the whole thing down. Either way, let me know.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 14**

**The Hokage Tower…**

Tsunade looked out her window at the family of moles that had started a den just outside. Every once in a while one of the moles would bump into the glass, but if it bothered them, they didn't show it. The chances of getting her office moved above ground were getting slimmer and slimmer. She tried to look at the bright side. Happy little moles were much more pleasant to look at than the silent brooding group in her office: a clan head, an interrogation master, an ANBU captain, her pervert teammate, her assistant, and a man in a green unitard. Tsunade rubbed her head and then looked at Ibiki.

"Anything new from the guards?" she asked him.

"One of them committed suicide. The other still denies seeing anything," the interrogation master said in his usual rumbling growl. "If this does involve remnants of ROOT, the dead one was probably our culprit."

Tsunade had sworn up and down that Danzo would get it if he screwed with her, but without evidence, she couldn't drag him in front of the council as a traitor, and she didn't have the resources to have him killed. The only people she had evidence against were the Hyuga, and they were some of her strongest supporters.

And of course there was still Elric to deal with. She supposed she could humbly apologize and offer him a free punch, but she wasn't really in the mood for groveling.

Fortunately for Edward, the curse seal had turned itself off after it knocked him out. And then it knocked him out again when he woke up and screwed with it. And then a third time, after which they had strapped him to his hospital bed.

Hyuga Hiashi was sitting on the couch by her filing cabinets, looking very inconvenienced. He'd had a look at the seal after the second time Edward knocked himself out setting it off. It was somewhat good timing. Since Hiashi hadn't exactly met Edward, they didn't hate each other yet, though the head of the Hyuga clan was not exactly brimming with sympathy for the boy.

"What's your take on it?" Tsunade asked him.

"It is a variation of the caged-bird-seal," Hiashi said, waving to the copy they'd made of the mark. "But it is not the work of my clan. These extra lines are triggers unrelated to sealing. They most likely link the seal to a particular anchor location, and set it off when the boy moves too far away. The position indicates it is meant to cause intense pain and paralysis to stop him from escaping."

"So it won't kill him?" Tsunade said.

"No, it will kill him if he moves far enough away from the anchor," Hiashi said. "Or if he persists in his attempts to alter it."

"Could you locate the anchor point?" Tsunade asked.

"Perhaps if I were present when the seal was activated. That should draw enough chakra into the link to make it visible. Time would be the issue, though. As I understand it, the seal only stays active for a few minutes. Either it is automatically deactivating after the boy is unconscious, or the person at the anchor is turning it off before it kills him," Hiashi said. "We may have to continuously reactivate it, or keep it active longer if I am to find the source."

"But if we find and destroy that anchor seal-" Gai started to say.

"You will kill him," Hiashi said. "The anchor tells the seal to remain dormant. If it is gone, the seal will remain active until it kills him."

Gai slumped. Tsunade really wanted some sake.

"Do you have any idea who could've done this?" Tsunade asked.

"The person who applied it obviously did not have the use of the Byakugan," Hiashi said. "In several places the tenketsu points were missed or half-covered."

"But the job isn't so sloppy you can peel it off?" Tsunade asked.

"No, Lady Hokage," Hiashi said. "The seal will kill less efficiently than a properly applied caged-bird, but it is permanently bound to the boy's chakra."

"Do you know who could have applied it?" Tsunade asked. "Aside from members of your clan?"

"Only the leaders of the main branch are trained to create the caged-bird-seal, and none of those people were unaccounted for last night, nor would they have taught the technique to an outsider. You have my word that no member of my clan was involved."

Tsunade resisted the urge to huff. She couldn't challenge him again on the subject without it being a mortal insult. When it came to their word, the old clans were finicky that way.

"And no one has broken into your clan compound and stolen the instructions recently?" she asked.

"We would've reported such a thing. The most recent incident of scroll theft from our compound was an incident attributed to Orochimaru 14 years ago," Hiashi said.

"And I take it none of the ANBU at the Hospital saw anyone suspicious entering Elric's room, Hyugas in particular?" Jiraiya asked.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair. At least she had him around to get out all the gauche things that needed to be said. Ibiki kept the response professional.

"The only Hyuga we found in the area was Hyuga Hinata. Apparently she was lurking in the hospital working up the nerve to deliver an apology to Elric. When the ANBU brought her in for questioning, all she had on her were the standard-issue genin weapons and a book on etiquette. Several people saw her in the ladies' bathroom, telling the mirror she was "deeply aggrieved for the suffering I have caused you" and other such remarks."

Tsunade thought Hiashi Hyuga would've looked less embarrassed if his neurotic daughter had been Danzo's agent. Of course, she still had no proof that it was Danzo. She couldn't even drop his name in present company without political backlash.

"I take it she was cleared and released?" she asked.

Ibiki nodded.

"Isn't there something we can do for Edward?" Gai asked.

"He'll learn to stop picking at it after a while," Ibiki said. "It's more painful than anything I could do to him…without special tools."

Tsunade did not like the interrogation master's smirk.

"But Edward-," Gai said.

"The really important question is, 'Who went behind the Hokage's back?'" Ibiki said. "There were no major council meetings between your return and installation, and none of the chief councilors are claiming responsibility. We need to know who is making calls outside of the official channels."

"And who has the power to cover it up," ANBU Rhino said, speaking for the first time. "This means that all the ANBU on duty were either compromised or fooled, and since none of the medical staff reported the still-bleeding seal, they are all suspect as well. We haven't had an issue like this since Orochimaru."

"Can we all stop saying the "O" word?" Jiraiya asked.

"If it is a councilor, they would probably just want Elric kept in the village as a resource. If it's someone else, they will have to approach Elric to make their intentions known," Ibiki said.

"But what about getting someone to remove it?" Gai pressed.

"At the moment, he's more useful as bait," Ibiki said.

"But the seal is-"

"I'm sure he'll get tired of playing with himself eventually," Ibiki said.

"And according to the Hyuga there is no way to remove the seal," Tsunade said.

"Perhaps you, Lord Jiraiya-"

"I'll look into it," Jiraiya said.

He couldn't promise much more than that, especially with the head of the Hyuga clan sitting right there. Tsunade sighed.

"We'll work on it, Gai," she said. "But for now, leave it alone and tell him to leave it alone."

"Yes m'lady," Gai said, obviously forlorn.

"Hiashi, could anyone else in your clan backtrack the active seal to the anchor?" Tsunade asked.

"There are a few skilled enough, though most are either busy with missions or clan business," he said.

"What about Neji?" Gai suggested.

"I suppose he is capable, if the village has no other use for him," Hiashi said.

Tsunade noted the head of the Hyuga clan did not look thrilled with the idea. She wondered if it was because Neji, who also bore a caged-bird-seal, would be endangered if he meddled in the matter. Or perhaps Hiashi was worried that his sealed nephew would be too eager to assign blame to his own authoritarian clan.

"Alright, we can assign Gai's team to help babysit the brat. They're on modified duty without Lee, anyway," she said.

Shizune nodded. Tsunade looked at Gai again.

"Are you sure you still want to take responsibility for Elric when the hospital releases him? I doubt the seal is going to make him more tractable."

"Fear not, good lady!" Gai said, throwing his arms wide. "I'm certain I will be able to instill in him the youthful spirit of our village. Though the tireless forces of the medical corps have no doubt done their best to explain to him the greatness of our home, Konoha must be lived! In my care he will experience all the glories of our village, and bask in our noble history!"

"Um, right," she said. "Just don't drop him on his head or anything."

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**Konoha** **Hospital…**

"No visitors," the ANBU guard repeated.

"Why not?" Sasuke asked.

"The subject is being kept in isolation," the guard replied.

"Since when?" Sasuke asked.

"Since 0900 today," the guard said.

Sasuke thought he could hear the man smirking behind his porcelain mask. Sasuke knew Naruto had been allowed in to see Elric the previous day. Why would they let that idiot in and not him? They'd even let Ino in, and she'd had nothing to do with any of this.

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

"That information is confidential," the guard said.

There was a sharp snapping noise from down the hall, and the second guard, who had yet to speak, vanished in a blur. Sasuke considered trying to run past the remaining guard, but even if he got to the room before the guard, the ANBU would be able to throw him back out.

An alarm started to sound. It was a non-threatening ping, ping, ping, but it brought a half-dozen nurses running. Sasuke and the guard pressed against the wall so they could pass. The nurses looked annoyed more than concerned.

The last nurse to run past looked surprised, and let out a yelp as her feet went out of under her. Sasuke barely noticed the ANBU's hand twitch, pulling up tripwires that had been laid along a crack in the tile floor. Neither of them moved to catch the nurse and she cracked her head on the floor. There was a puff of smoke, and a moment later Naruto sat up, having lost control of his disguise spell.

"What are you doing, fool?" Sasuke asked.

"Hu?" Naruto asked, rubbing his head. "What are you doing here, you bastard?"

Sasuke grabbed the collar of Naruto's jacket and pulled him to his feet. Naruto staggered around for a moment, bounced off a wall and finally managed to find his balance.

"Neither of you is getting in," the guard said.

"Granny Tsunade said I could visit Ed," Naruto complained.

"All permissions were revoked this morning," the guard said. "I told you that the first three times you tried to get in."

"The Fifth Hokage gave you special permission to visit him before?" Sasuke asked.

"Sure," Naruto said. "She and the old pervert said they were going to let Ed go really soon, but until then I could visit, but today they just keep kicking me out."

"So if we get permission from her again, we can get through?" Sasuke asked the guard.

"If you have all the official seals on it," the guard said.

"Fine!" Naruto said. "We'll get granny's seal or whatever and come back."

Naruto turned as if to march off, but then turned around again.

"WE'LL BE BACK TO VISIT SOON, ED!" he bellowed.

"Come on, idiot," Sasuke said.

Naruto didn't move right away, apparently waiting for Elric to shout something back. No response came.

"BYE, ED!" Naruto shouted.

There was still no answer.

Sasuke gave his teammate a not-so-gentle shove to get him moving.

When they got out of the hospital, Naruto started chattering away about how the Fifth Hokage had practically already endorsed him to be the Sixth Hokage and how he was going to do extra training and be the best ninja ever.

"Did Elric tell you how he escaped Itachi's genjutsu?" Sasuke interrupted.

"No," Naruto said. "But I haven't asked."

"Could you ask him?" Sasuke asked, omitting the "for me" part that usually accompanied such requests.

"I guess I could ask him, next time I see him," Naruto said. Sasuke could hear him grinning as he continued. "Once I know how to get out of super genjutsu like that, it will be easy to kick your ass!"

Sasuke whirled and took a swing at him, but Naruto saw it coming and hopped back, still grinning.

"Naruto!" Sasuke growled.

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" he sang back, dodging another kick and launching his own.

Sasuke caught Naruto's ankle and tossed him at the nearest wall. Naruto twisted in the air and hit the wall feet first. The plaster cracked and a big chunk came loose and crashed to the sidewalk. Naruto jumped away from the mess just before the door to that building swung open and a man rushed out to look at his damaged wall.

"You little bastards!" the man shouted at the two genin, shaking his fist.

Naruto smirked. "See, Sasuke, everyone else thinks you're a bastard, too!"

"Sasuke?" the angry man said. "Uchiha Sasuke?" He took another look at Sasuke and his eyes widened. "My apologies, Mr. Uchiha," the man mumbled. "You better clean this mess up!" he said to Naruto.

Naruto made a disgusted noise. "Up yours, jerk! Tell Mr. Uchiha to do it!" he shouted, and then took off.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and took off after Naruto. The idiot would probably forget where they were going in the first place.

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Just hold very still and don't think about it. That seemed like a good strategy. The only problem was, Ed couldn't stop thinking about it. And when he thought about it, he moved. And when he moved, it hurt.

The pain was nowhere near as bad as when the thing was active, but it still sent little bolts of lightning into all the muscles in his back, which made his legs go numb and his breathing hitch.

So far, his attempts to get rid of the seal hadn't gone very well. He had tried dissolving the pigment in the seal, but that set it off. His second attempt to force the pigment out of his skin had set it off as well. The third time, he had tried freezing it, and then dissolving it, but that didn't work, either. He just woke up with frostbite across his lower back.

That had set the crazy nurses yelling at him. They'd tied him down after that, so for try number four he'd had to melt half his hospital bed to get loose, which brought the guards running, so he'd been rushed. He'd intended to melt a layer of cells out of under the seal, but the ANBU guard had jumped on him and he'd lost control of the reaction. And, of course, the seal had activated and knocked him out. He woke up in a new hospital bed in the same room. It was very frustrating.

It was also very tiring. He knew he should be getting his act together and plotting seal destruction attempt number five, but the residual pain was making it hard to think. And he was hungry, but too stubborn to ask the evil nurses for food. Plus, he didn't want to eat anything they had handled. He'd called them some pretty unpleasant names when they had tied him down again.

He tried to keep his temper under control. This was frustrating as hell, but it was hardly the worst situation he'd ever been in. He wasn't trapped in a room with invulnerable homunculi while his brother was being carried off for dissection. He wasn't fighting a rogue alchemist to save the life of a childhood friend. He hadn't even been swallowed alive by a demented eating machine with an endless sea of blood in its stomach. Really, there was no reason to fly off the handle.

It used to be so much easier to make decisions and form plans when Al was around. Or at least, when Al had to be considered. _That's mean, big brother. You're going too far, big brother. Why don't I talk to them this time?_

Ed hated to admit it, but he desperately wanted Al's opinion on what he should do. Half the ninja weirdos in this village claimed they were trying to help him out, and the other half were comfortable letting him know they wanted to torture him to death, or at least into submission. He had a feeling that Al would know the right thing to say even to those people to get them on his side. But the voice in the back of his head stayed silent.

Though he was sure somewhere in the universe the bastard was smirking at him, he thought, very quietly, _What_ _would Mustang do?_

He'd definitely smirk more, and be an arrogant jerk. And flirt with those horrible harpies they called nurses. And he would probably have been able to talk his way out of this by playing along. He'd probably even manage to make money off this whole mess somehow. He was a much better liar than Ed.

Ed considered using the colonel's alchemy to try to burn the seal off, but burning was slower than deconstruction, and a fast burn in a small area would be hard to control. If Ed tried it, he'd probably end up like Havoc, with his spine fried.

_If I'm going to get rid of this seal, I'm going to need to know more about it. And they probably will be more inclined to tell me about this seal-chakra-crazy-shit if I stop screaming curses at them whenever they come in the room._

He sighed. Screaming curses just felt so good, though. Not as good as kicking ass would, but as they were stronger, faster, and probably armored, his feet would probably never connect. The only level he could really compete on was massive property destruction, and then he'd probably only end up ruining things for civilians.

_Alright_, he decided. _New plan._ _I'll be polite until I get this god damn seal off, and then I'm going to knock those stupid faces off that ninja mountain. _

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Jiraiya was not looking forward to this, but there didn't seem to be any way around it. He'd promised Naruto. He'd been forced to promise Gai, to get the bizarre Jonin to stop giving speeches about justice and camaraderie.

"Do something for Edward," he thought as he walked through the hospital, to the secure wing. Just don't piss off the Hyuga, or give away the surveillance, or let Edward get loose in the village and run amuck. Keeping the brat unconscious was looking better by the minute.

The ANBU standing guard reported that Naruto and the Uchiha brat had been trying to get in to visit Ed, and had been sent to get an official permit from Tsunade. Of course, the line to speak with the Hokage was a mile long at the moment. They'd see her by next Tuesday, if someone gave them cuts.

Elric was awake and busy glaring, and rattling the bed he was tied to.

"What?" he growled.

He looked like he was going to start cursing again, but after a moment of apparent personal struggle, Ed closed his mouth.

"Certain bright-orange-and-green parties requested I take another look at your seal," Jiraiya said.

"Another look?" Ed asked.

"I got dragged in here earlier after you'd knocked yourself out. I didn't see any way to help you then, but maybe something will come to me," Jiraiya said as he sank into the visitor's chair.

"If you want to help me, untie me," Ed said.

"You'll just set the seal off again, and the nurses will run in here and yell at me," Jiraiya said. "And not one of them is a looker. Now, there is a very stacked young lady down in the long-term-care ward. If she was up here yelling and waving her arms, it would set all kinds of lovely things in motion-"

He looked over at the kid. Ed had stopped rattling his bed and was gawking at Jiraiya with a very disturbed look on his face. Jiraiya realized he had been making hand gestures as he described the nurse, and settled back in the visitor's chair. Jiraiya cleared his throat.

"So…that curse seal. If you keep messing with it, it will kill you," Jiraiya said.

"That's my problem, not yours," Ed said.

Jiraiya shrugged. He got out of the chair and untied the restraints. "Don't think you can make a break for it. You aren't going to get past me."

He saw the brat thinking it over. He didn't immediately make a break for it. He supposed that was something. Jiraiya saw a paper-wrapped lump on the bedside table. He picked it up and tossed it into Ed's lap as the teenager stretched and popped his assorted flesh and metal limbs.

"What's this?" Ed asked, turning it over suspiciously.

"Naruto got it for you."

"Why?"

"He was worried about you after you got turned into a kunai-cushion by Itachi. I tried to distract him by taking him to a festival, but he just went on and on about how you had gotten hurt and you might die and it was all his fault…It was very annoying. I told him to go play, but he said he was going to go win you something great. He ended up with that."

"What is it?" Ed asked.

"He got it at a ring toss, if that gives you any clues," Jiraiya said.

The guilt trip seemed to be working a bit. Ed looked down at the lump of paper with a very angsty expression.

Scrip, scrip, scrip!

Very carefully, Ed started to peel off the wrapping paper. He inspected each layer like he thought it might trigger an explosion. Jiraiya was actually rather fascinated by the way Ed's metal hand grasped the delicate paper. It was just as steady and precise as his flesh-and-blood hand.

Jiraiya was just about to ask him about it when Ed got through the last layer of paper, and the little metal doll tumbled out on the bed. It bounced a few times and came to a stop against the rail. Ed just stared at it with the paper still gripped in his frozen hands. The miniature suit of armor looked back at Ed. Jiraiya could plainly see the boy was on the edge of freaking out.

Ed's pupils were dilated. His heart was beating so loud Jiraiya could almost hear it without chakra enhancing his senses. Ed stared at the doll as if it were about to jump up and take his head off. Jiraiya wondered what the hell the problem was.

Fear of dolls? Jiraiya didn't think that was too likely, but the brat was a whole collection of weird. According to Anko, Edward had a phobia about milk. Why not dolls? Or rattles? Or babies? Jiraiya sighed and walked to the bed, intending to take the scary doll away. But when he reached for it, Ed snatched it up. He seemed to come back to reality.

"Wh-" Ed started and then paused to gulp some air. "Where'd he get this?"

"I told you, at a ring-toss game at a festival," Jiraiya said. "What's the big deal?"

Ed turned the doll over carefully, inspecting it from every angle. "The helmet is a little off. There's no tassel, but everything else is the same. It's not possible. I don't understand-"

"What's there to understand?" Jiraiya asked.

"He didn't make it across," Ed mumbled. Suddenly he looked up at Jiraiya. "Who made this?"

"I don't know," Jiraiya said. "It was some cheap toy at a festival stand. Why? What does it mean?"

Jiraiya already had an idea, though. Shinobi sometimes did the same thing. They'd leave a clue in a random object that their contact was likely to come across. Usually it would be a note inside a statue at a temple or something like that. Mass-producing a toy that Edward would recognize was a bit extreme, but Jiraiya supposed it wasn't outside the realm of possibility. It might mean one of Ed's people was out there. It might mean leverage.

"I could probably find out where it came from," Jiraiya said. "That is, if you want my help."

"If you want to help, then explain chakra," Ed said.

"What?"

"I don't want you people in my business," Ed said, setting the doll on his pillow. "If you want to help, and you claim you can't do anything about this cooked-bird-seal-"

"Caged-bird-seal," Jiraiya said.

"Whatever!" Ed said. "This seal thing, explain it to me, from the basics up. I don't know anything about this chakra stuff. If I know more about it, I've got a better chance of getting rid of it."

Jiraiya wanted to remind him that he was just going to injure himself, and that seals like that didn't just come off. Plus, he wasn't really supposed to teach non-shinobi the art of chakra manipulation. He supposed there was no real harm in giving him the basics, though. You could get the same information reading popular fiction.

"Chakra is a combination of physical and spiritual energy-"

"Does it arise from individual cells or is it synergistic?" Ed interrupted, as he grabbed one of his notebooks from the table, and flipped to a blank page.

"What?"

"Does a single cell possess this 'spiritual and physical energy', or does it only exist when multiple cells are part of a system?"

"Every cell has it, but multiple cells are required to use it," Jiraiya said.

Ed scribbled a few notes. "Does the chakra output of an individual cell relate in any way to the heat output of the cell during normal homeostatic activities?"

"Using a lot of chakra does increase body temperature…"

Ed kept the questions coming until Jiraiya's brain felt wrung out and numb. Ed had filled up dozens of pages with writing Jiraiya couldn't read. And he kept right on scribbling long after Jiraiya had stopped talking. Jiraiya was about to go looking for the time he'd lost track of when something green came flying at him. He jumped back and was halfway through the seals for a katon jutsu when he realized it was Maito Gai.

"Edward! You are looking very youthful this evening!" Gai shouted.

Ed didn't even look up from his notes. He just sort of grunted.

"Edward!" Gai tried again. "With permission from the Lady Hokage, the hospital has released you into my custody! Gather your things!"

Ed grunted something else. He had started to draw a geometric design in the book, and the flailing green ninja couldn't seem to distract him from it.

"Edward! Don't you wish to be released into the fresh air and sunlight of the village? To be free from this un-youthful environment, that, while essential to healing the body, leaves the spirit drained and wanting?"

Ed mumbled something else that might have been "doesn't have resonance", or "doesn't have raisinettes", but Jiraiya wasn't entirely sure. Either way the brat kept on writing.

"Maybe you should let him finish whatever that is," Jiraiya suggested to Gai. "He seems to think he's made a breakthrough."

"A breakthrough with the…" Gai trailed off, tracing strange lines in the air that Jiraiya supposed were meant to be an outline of the curse seal.

Jiraiya nodded.

"Do you really think so?" Gai asked.

"I've got no idea," Jiraiya said.

Ed snapped his notebook shut with a flourish, and reached for his bag.

"Done, kid?" Jiraiya asked.

"For now," Ed said.

"You aren't going to screw with that thing, are you?" Jiraiya asked.

"I've got some more planning to do before I do. I don't suppose I could get those Hyuga bastards to curse me up two dozen caged-bird-sealed rabbits or maybe rats. Mice would be the best match, but there isn't much surface to work with," Ed said as he flipped open the notebook and jotted something else down before stuffing it in his bag.

"They probably wouldn't," Jiraiya said. "If you did manage to pry the seal off, they'd probably do their best to kill you."

"Kinda reinforces my earlier statement about them being all fxxed up," Ed said.

"Language, Edward!" Gai scolded.

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"I'm very relieved that you've calmed down, Edward," Gai said as they walked through the village.

The teenager just grunted in response. Gai fought the urge to mention that his attitude was not very youthful, but he didn't think that would get a very positive response at the moment. He supposed they could work on improving Edward's attitude when he was feeling better.

Gai was a bit worried about taking Ed in, but he had to help somehow. The teenager was now the focus of multiple conspiracies, and if Gai didn't look out for Ed's interests, it didn't seem like anyone would. If Ed stayed in the hospital, he'd be restrained and at the mercy of whoever had put that seal on him. If he was mobile, Gai thought some freedom would improve the boy's chances of defending himself, or at least of summoning help if he were attacked.

Of course, this would also make Gai's apartment a target for the dastardly villains who sought to control Ed. Gai knew his apprentice Lee would be put in danger, especially in his injured state. He'd asked Lee if he had objections to letting Ed stay with them. Lee had said 'no,' of course, but he doubted Lee would speak against one of his sensei's ideas, even if his opinion was different.

Edward's pace was slow, even for a civilian's. He refused Gai's offer to carry him. He insisted on carrying his own bag, too. He seemed worried Gai would take it, which was a bit insulting. Gai was not a thief, but if he wanted to steal it, Ed was not in any condition to stop him. Gai had to admit he was a bit tempted to take Edward's notebooks away. Whatever Jiraiya had inspired him to write was probably going to turn into another painful failure to remove the seal.

Ed also insisted on carrying a small action figure in the crook of his left arm. Gai didn't think that having that thing out was slowing them down, but carrying a toy around like that was a little too youthful in Gai's opinion.

After an eternity of walking, they got to Gai's apartment complex, and climbed the steps to the second floor. Gai hadn't been able to find a ground floor apartment that he liked, so he had had to pay for the floors to be reinforced so he and Lee could continue to increase their training weights. Ed managed to trip over the slightly raised frame as he walked through the door.

Gai expected Lee to be there to greet their guest, but he was not in the living room, and Gai could sense no trace of him in the apartment. He saw a note stuck to the refrigerator. It only said "went to training ground three", but Gai recognized it as Lee's writing. He was a bit disturbed by his student's antisocial action, but he did his best to cover it.

"Welcome to my most youthful residence!" Gai announced. "It may not be cool and modern like some apartments, but it has all the amenities needed for vigorous exercise and other such youthful pursuits!"

Edward took a moment to look around. His eyes slid over assorted weight machines and the bookshelves filled with health literature. His face lacked enthusiasm.

"You don't have a TV or a radio?" Ed asked.

"No," Gai said. "The neighbors complained about the noise coming from my apartment, so I got rid of those noisy modern contraptions. The strange thing is, they still complain. I suppose the offending sounds were from another apartment."

Ed stared at him for a minute, but Gai didn't understand why.

"The bathroom is through there," he said, continuing the tour. "That is my room. My most wonderful student Lee resides in that room. You might cohabitate with him, or occupy this most youthful futon!" Gai said, pointing at one of the few exercise-less pieces of furniture in the room.

"I guess this is closer," Ed said.

He flopped down on the futon without unfolding it, and passed out.

Gai watched for a concerned moment, but it seemed to be a natural, if sudden, sleep. He went to the window and looked out. He couldn't see the squad of ANBU the Hokage had assigned to help watch Ed, but he could sense them out there. There was no sign of Lee, though.

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Lee knew his sensei was mad at him, but Gai didn't remark on his absence when Lee returned to the apartment a little past midnight. Gai just explained the new security protocols in place. Lee had nodded without really taking the information in. His eyes were drawn to Ed's not-so-softly snoring form, flopped out on a futon by the weight bench. He had excused himself for a moment, fetched a blanket from his room, and tossed it over the older boy. Gai had complemented Lee for his thoughtfulness and hospitality, but in truth, Lee just couldn't stand seeing Ed's artificial limbs. Lee went to bed hoping Ed would run from the village again, and be gone in the morning.

The next morning he was still there, asleep and oblivious as Lee went through his new morning routine of rewrapping bandages and braces, taking medicines, and doing physical therapy exercises that didn't seem to be helping. Gai was up already, lifting weights. Normally he would be out running laps around the village, but he didn't want to go out before Neji and Tenten arrived. Gai didn't mention that Lee could not even catch up to Ed if he ran.

When his teammates did arrive, Gai attempted to wake Edward for introductions, but yelling and shaking had no apparent effect. Tenten suggested dumping a bucket of water on the stubbornly unconscious boy, but Gai vetoed the idea. He explained that Ed was a challenge to get along with under good circumstances. And even without cold water, things were not going to be easy.

"Our mission today requires the utmost discretion," Gai said. "I must ask you not to discuss this with anyone,

not your families, friends, or even your eternal rivals!"

Gai told his team about Ed coming to Naruto's aid, and about his injuries. He told them of Ed's stay in the hospital and his misunderstanding within the interrogation department. They had all heard about what happened to the tower and the interrogation department, and it was hard to miss the damaged village walls. Gai then told them about Ed being recaptured after he aided team eight, and about him being marked with a caged-bird-seal while he was unconscious in the hospital.

Neji said his uncle Hiashi had mentioned the incident to him, and had already explained that aspect of the mission. Lee wondered if the uncle had given Neji any additional orders regarding Ed. Gai opened his mouth, probably to ask about that, when a message bird tapped on the window. Gai opened the window and the bird chirped out a code that meant there was an A-rank mission waiting for him at the tower, and that he had to report in immediately.

"I must deal with this now," Gai said. "I trust all of you to guard Edward until I get back. But do not worry. I won't be gone long. If I do not finish this mission in less than a day, I will do one thousand spin-kicks in a row without stopping. It's a promise!"

"Is there anything else we should know about this guy?" Tenten asked.

"Just treat him like a client on a bodyguard mission. Respect him, but don't let him get in trouble. If you come across a situation you can't handle, call in the ANBU. They are shadowing Edward as well. Any other questions, my students?" Gai asked, as he rushed around the apartment, gathering equipment.

A minute later Gai was rushing out the door. Ed continued to snore.

"So is there anything you can tell us about him?" Tenten asked Lee.

"He yells a lot. He likes to argue, even with people who could easily kill him," Lee said. "I think he wants to die."

Tenten didn't look like she agreed. "Why would he want to die?"

"He's missing half his limbs," Lee said, using his crutch to drag Ed's blanket away, and expose his metal arm. "Would you want to live like that?"

"Just because somebody yells a lot doesn't mean they want to die. Besides, he's not even that messed up. He's got those cool metal prosthetics. Maybe he's like Naruto. He just doesn't know when to quit," Tenten said.

"Maybe he should," Lee said. "I'm going to the training grounds."

"But we're on a mission!" Tenten said.

"You and Neji are on a mission. I'm not even a ninja right now," Lee said.

"It's hardly a mission at all! All we have to do is sit around and watch him. Even you could do that," Tenten said, and then clamped her mouth shut, apparently realizing she'd been a little too honest. "I mean, while you're on medical leave. I didn't mean…"

"I'm going to the training grounds," Lee repeated.

He hobbled out, and she didn't try to stop him. He didn't look at Neji at all.

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The room still felt tense, even after Lee's surprising exit. Tenten supposed it sort of made sense for Lee to want to avoid Ed. After all, he was a warped version of Lee in some ways, though his limbs were missing instead of just being crippled. It wasn't very professional behavior, though.

Tenten was sure this was going to be a bad kind of mission. It was going to grate nerves and strain friendships. She sighed. It was probably going to end up driving them all crazy.

As if on cue, Neji started acting strange as well. He took a seat at Gai's kitchen table, and started fiddling with his hair. She was about to mention it, when Neji took off his headband, and set it down with a clink. Then he took off his hair tie, and then he unwound his bandages. He sat with his forehead exposed. His caged-bird-seal was impossible to miss, and she couldn't stop staring at it.

He'd never intentionally shown it to her. The only time she'd seen the mark before was when he went a bit nuts at the chunin exam and showed it to Naruto. She thought maybe she should say something, but the only sentence that tried to come out of her mouth was, "It's like you're naked."

Tenten sat down on a weight bench and took out one of her weapons scrolls. She summoned up a couple of things to sharpen, and then a couple more. Neji just sat there at the table with his naked forehead hanging out as she filed edges. Ed remained oblivious, adding snores over the scratching and scraping sounds. She got through the entire thing before Ed started to stir. She checked the clock. It was almost noon.

Ed rolled off the futon onto the tile floor, and his arm clanked. He jerked upright in surprise and looked around, blinking and squinting.

"Why am I at the gym?" he asked blearily.

"You aren't," Tenten said. "You're at Gai-sensei's place, remember?"

"Uh, right," Ed said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Tenten, Gai told us to keep you out of trouble while he takes care of some mission," she said. "That's Hyuga Neji."

Ed didn't whirl at the word Hyuga, but his lips pulled back from his teeth, like a dog about to bark. He turned very slowly. Tenten saw his fists were clenched. His eyes seemed to slide right over Neji's face to the mark on his forehead. He flinched back, and choked on whatever it was he was going to say. After a moment of throat clearing, he produced a weak 'hello'.

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Neji fought the urge to leap from his seat and demand answers, or theories, or whatever it was Elric had that made him think he could get a caged-bird-seal off. Neji didn't jump, though. He had hope now. Naruto had given him hope, or rather, Naruto had forced hope down his throat. But Neji couldn't depend on it.

So instead of asking Elric about the seal, he said "Gai-sensei believes you are in danger."

"That's not exactly news," Elric said as he got up.

He yawned and turned in a slow circle before grabbing up his bag and heading for the bathroom. The toilet flushed and the sink ran, and then the shower was turned on.

Neji activated his Byakugan and then walked to the living room window. Edward had crawled out the bathroom window and was hanging by one hand from the sill, apparently choosing a landing spot.

"Get back inside," Neji ordered.

"And quit wasting water!" Tenten added, leaning out next to him.

"You were spying on me in the shower?" Ed demanded, acting very offended.

"You were not in the shower," Neji said.

"I could've been."

"If you wish to be supervised in the shower, then please keep up this immature behavior," Neji said.

Ed scowled, but climbed back inside. They heard the shower curtain move and this time there was the sound of water hitting a body. Ten minutes later, Edward returned to the living room in black pants and a red tank top, wringing water from his hair. Neji had looked through Ed's bag, and hadn't seen a red tank top in there, but it wasn't the kind of thing Lee or Gai would leave around for him to borrow.

"You use your Alchemy to alter your clothes?" Neji asked.

Ed shrugged, clapped his hands together, and then ran them through his hair. There were a few blue sparks as the water evaporated and drifted away.

"Alchemy has a million uses," Ed said as he pulled his now-dry hair back and started braiding it. "It can change pigments in fabric dye, decrease pressure to speed up evaporation. The only thing it seems not to want to do at the moment is dissolve seals out of skin."

"The seal is linked to your chakra. That is much more important than the ink particles that remain in your skin," Neji said.

"That's what they've been telling me," Ed said, his eyes drifting to Neji's forehead. "How long have you had that?"

"Since I was four." Neji said.

Ed scowled at that. "They burn that thing onto little kids?"

"If they waited until we were adults, we might say no," Neji said.

"And no one in power, not the Hokage or whatever is doing anything about this?" Ed asked.

"No one with power would risk losing their power just to help our branch of the clan," Neji said. "Uzumaki Naruto has sworn to end the vile practice when he becomes Hokage…but that will not be any time soon."

"So Queen Boob the Fifth doesn't mind the whole slavery thing?" Ed said.

"Her name is Tsunade, not Queen Boob!" Tenten shouted angrily. "She can't do anything about it without losing the support of a major clan. The village is unstable as it is. If she starts messing with one clan, the others will turn against her. Things will fall apart and the other villages are just waiting to move in and finish us off. Besides, she's only been the Hokage for a couple of days. She can't just snap her fingers and make everything better."

Neji didn't think Tsunade would raise the issue at all during her reign as Hokage. None of her predecessors had. A few of the cadet branch elders said they thought the Fourth Hokage might have helped free them of the seal, but people usually talked about the Fourth as if he made gold rain from the sky on alternate Tuesdays. Neji decided to interrupt before Ed could further insult Tenten's idol.

"Our clan was divided between the main and cadet branches before we joined Leaf village. It was a condition of our joining that no one in Leaf interfere with clan traditions. The first Kage of Leaf needed our strength more than righteousness."

"What does a village of killers-for-hire need righteousness for?" Ed asked.

Neji couldn't come up with an answer for him. He supposed people who killed for a living couldn't really expect the gods of fate to go easy on them. He supposed Ed didn't share the opinion most people in the elemental countries had, about ninja being a necessary evil. Even if Ed did figure out how to get the seal off, would he be willing to share it with the branch Hyuga? Neji wanted to ask, but wasn't really sure how. He usually didn't have to ask for things. And Tenten's presence made things more difficult. If he started asking Ed to help his half of the clan break away from Main branch's control and Ed did it, it could lead to a civil war in Leaf. He didn't honestly know if Tenten would choose to help him, given the risk to the village.

Ed broke the silence. "What's there to eat around here?"

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It was like a nightmare.

There was nothing but health food in every cabinet. Protein bars, high fiber cereal, 15 kinds of nutritional shake powder. There wasn't even a bowl of sugar to serve with tea. The refrigerator wasn't any better. Yolk-less omelet mix, tofu, vegetables, salad, and of course, Ed's nemesis, milk.

"How can people live like this?" Ed shouted.

He thought it might be possible to transmute something edible out of the horror that was Gai's pantry, but that would be a lot of thinking and he didn't have any sugar to make his brain work.

"Screw this!" he declared, marching to the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tenten asked.

"I'm going to find food."

"There's food here," she said.

"We have very different ideas about what food is," Ed said.

"You stay here. We'll order some takeout," she said.

"I don't know what I want yet," Ed said.

"Gai told us to keep you out of trouble," Tenten said.

"I'm not going to get in trouble going from here to a restaurant!" Ed said.

"Lee was right," Neji said. "You do like to yell."

Neji got up, put his headband back on and went to open the door.

"We're taking him outside?" Tenten asked.

"Do you really want to be cooped up with him in Gai-sensei's apartment for the rest of the day?"

She sighed, and got up to follow. Ed didn't know if he should celebrate or be suspicious of their sudden acquiescence.

They got a few strange looks walking down the street. Ed's wanted posters were still up, but Neji and Tenten's presence kept people from screaming for the police.

Ed really didn't want to waste time transmuting something to sell at a pawn shop, so he just went up to the first occupied-but-damaged shop and offered a straight up trade.

Ed repaired the roof of a dumpling stand in exchange for carton full that a cook was preparing outside on a camp stove. He resurrected the Dango Palace in exchange for the promise of future free eats. The shopkeeper at the Tapioca Bar gave all three of them free drinks when Ed fixed their shattered front window, and as they were walking away, the owner of Turn-a-New-Leaf grill dragged Ed away to fix their reserve dining room, which a giant Akimichi had accidentally stepped on while fighting an equally giant snake. By the time Ed finished with that, an entire mob of people looking to trade food for Alchemy had formed on the block.

The crowd seemed to make Neji and Tenten nervous, but Ed wasn't all that concerned. He didn't think the jerk and/or jerks that put the seal on him were planning to run up to him and stab him. And all these people running around cheering as he fixed things would probably help him out later, if he needed them to turn a blind eye when he eventually made his escape.

He looked over at Neji. Ed was pretty sure the younger teenager meant to imply he was on Ed's side of the whole "escape the caged-bird-seal" issue, but he hadn't come right out and said it. Of course, saying it might count as treason or some such thing. Maybe he was worried the girl would turn him in, or that Gai's apartment was bugged or something. Ed decided he would try to slip the kid a note later.

"Do you do this often?" Neji asked as they were swept towards a very large condemned hotel by a small army of out-of-work maids.

In Amestris, Ed hadn't been as generous with his Alchemy. Most of his large-scale alchemic repairs were to things he'd broken, or things that were damaged in fights he'd been involved in. Except for the mining town in Youswell, or the storm-damaged buildings in Resembool, or those houses the military "accidently" trashed…But most of those incidents were things Al told him to fix. Of course, considering the power source he was unknowingly tapping in Amestris, maybe his miserliness was for the best. But now it didn't matter, since he'd corrected the flaw in the formula.

"I usually don't work on this kind of scale," Ed said. "Of course, most places I've been haven't been trashed in a ninja war."

"I mean, asking so little in exchange for repairs worth millions," Neji said.

"I can make almost anything I need," Ed said. "What do I need a bunch of stamped paper for?"

"Couldn't you also make food?" Neji asked, raising his voice so Ed could hear him over the shouting, chattering maids, who were excessively happy about regaining the opportunity to turn down sheets and clean bathrooms.

"I could, but it doesn't taste very good," Ed said.

"That part I understand," Tenten said. "But I want to know what the hell you plan to do with the 10,000 hotel pillow mints they're trading you."

"I plan to give up brushing my teeth," Ed said.

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The ANBU squad had been shadowing them the entire time, but never moved in to help, even when the crush of people made the genin security team next-to-useless. After getting his hair caught in a pushy civilian's jacket zipper for the third time, Neji declared it was time to go home. Ed didn't object to leaving. He looked rather worn out, but he started out that way, too. Ed did object to Tenten and Neji grabbing his arms and picking him up for a chakra-assisted jump to the roof of the nearest building.

Neither Gai nor Lee were at the apartment when they returned. Neji scanned the floors and walls, but no spy devices had been added while they were out, nor any traps laid. Ed put his bags of food in Gai's refrigerator, and on the counter, and in the cabinets, and on the lat machine. Apparently unable to think of other things to do, he returned to his futon. The alchemist flopped down and went back to sleep.

"He must be worn out," Tenten muttered, rolling her eyes. "He was awake for a whole three hours." Neji looked at her and she shifted a little nervously. "Of course, he did all that repair stuff. That must've used up a lot of chakra."

"I was watching," Neji said. "It used none at all."

"Oh," she said. "Has his seal done anything?"

"No, it remains dormant."

She nodded and sat down at Gai's kitchen table. She yawned as she took out another weapons scroll and summoned up a blade to sharpen. "I shouldn't have eaten so much of that free mochi," she said. "I'm having a total carb crash."

"Perhaps not," Neji agreed as he walked behind her towards the other chair.

His hand darted out, and tapped the back of her neck. She slumped unconscious. Neji carefully arranged her arms on the table, and then rested her head on them. If he was lucky, she'd think she drifted off to sleep on her own. If not, it couldn't be helped.

His Byakugan had been active for most of their outing in the village, but he ignored the ache in his eyes, and activated it again. The ANBU were all still in position outside. They didn't seem aware of the activity in Gai's apartment. Perhaps they were just giving Neji enough rope to hang himself with. That couldn't be helped, either.

He knelt down next to Ed's futon and shook his shoulder. When that didn't elicit a response, Neji pulled the pillow out of under the older teen's head and whacked him with it. Ed muttered a few curses and sat up.

"What?"

"I think we may be able to help each other."

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Gai was nearly falling down with exhaustion as he climbed the steps to his apartment. The ANBU were still stationed outside, and they didn't flag him down with a report, so he assumed nothing too extreme had occurred.

Neji opened the door before Gai could even reach for the knob. Lee was sitting at the weight bench, raising and lowering a dumbbell with his good arm. Ed was seated backwards in one of the kitchen chairs with his shirt rolled up, and Tenten stood behind him, pressing a gauze pad to his back.

"He's not allowed in the bathroom by himself anymore," Tenten said.

Gai rushed to inspect the wound. A thin crescent of flesh was missing directly beneath the seal, and blood was oozing continuously from it. The mark itself remained intact. Gai looked a bit closer and saw what looked like chakra burns dotting the skin around the mark. They corresponded to where he knew tenketsu points to be. He looked over at Neji.

"He waited until we were distracted, and attempted to melt off the seal. It activated," Neji said. "I attempted to deactivate it by shutting down several chakra points, but it did not work."

Neji was good at hiding all emotions and expressions, but Gai could tell his student was lying.

"Why didn't you take him to the hospital?" Gai asked.

"He woke up shortly after the seal deactivated," Neji said. "And the self-inflicted injury to his skin is superficial."

"Except it won't stop bleeding," Tenten said.

"It's fine," Ed said. "Just tape the bandage down and it will stop."

"It will soak through like the last one," she said.

"It's fine," Ed repeated.

"How long ago did this happen?" Gai asked.

"About an hour," Tenten said. "I think."

"You think?" he asked.

"I fell asleep," Tenten admitted guiltily.

"I was at the training grounds," Lee said, apparently trying to draw the blame to himself.

"It was exactly fifty-seven minutes ago," Neji said. "I noticed the chakra spike when he set off the seal. Unfortunately, I was not able to find the seal's anchor."

Gai nodded. "If the bleeding doesn't stop in the next thirty minutes, I will take him to the hospital."

"I'm not going back there!" Ed interrupted.

"You will," Gai said. "If you continue to put yourself at risk, I will bring you back there and help the nurses restrain you. I have sworn to protect you, even from yourself."

"I don't want your protection!" Ed said. "I just want you all to leave me the hell alone!"

Gai loomed. He knew it was an unyouthful thing to do, but he had to get his point across. "If you were strong enough and fast enough to defend yourself from ninja, then what you want would matter."

Ed looked ready to curse and scream, but suddenly he slumped in his chair. "I'm not going back," he muttered crossing his arms and looking at the floor.

Gai supposed that was as much of a concession as he was likely to get. He decided to drop the matter for now. He told Tenten to tape the bandage on. Ed wandered back to his futon and took out one of his notebooks. Gai went to unpack his mission equipment, and by the time he was done, Neji had finished writing up the daily things-Edward-did report. Gai noticed Neji didn't mention what he'd described as an attempt to shut down the seal. Gai signed off on it anyway, and sent Neji and Tenten to deliver it before they went home for the night.

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**The Village Hidden in Sound…**

Kabuto did not want to be the one to deliver this news, especially with the stains from the last messenger still on the walls and floor. Still, it had to be done, and he would probably survive his master's temper-tantrum. And he had some interesting news to balance with.

Orochimaru was still in his very secure, very stuffy sleeping chambers. The room had no windows and trapped the stench of his decaying arms almost completely. Kabuto could taste the putrescence on his tongue as he knocked on the door and entered. The snake lord turned to glare at him, but didn't immediately throw a destructive jutsu his way.

"My lord, the surveillance teams were taken out by Leaf nin before they could get out of Fire country," Kabuto said as pleasantly as he could. He stayed well out of reach.

"Both of them?" Orochimaru hissed.

"Yes, and their monitor too," Kabuto said. "Three survived and were taken to the interrogation department. Our agents don't know if they've been broken yet, but-"

"It does not matter. They knew nothing of my plans," he hissed.

"They were taken out by a genin team," Kabuto said.

"Sasuke's?"

"No, just a few of his classmates," Kabuto said casually. "Apparently the genin had just captured the fugitive who stole the Hokage tower, and ran into our teams. Bad luck, I suppose."

"What about the tower?"

"The latest news out of Leaf is that they've captured a short, loud, half-mechanical teenager, who rearranges buildings when he's upset. He's repaired a lot of the civilian buildings we damaged during the invasion, but he's sunk the Hokage tower and the interrogation department into the ground. He's also melted numerous holes in the village walls."

Orochimaru had meant to either destroy or occupy the tower himself. He did not seem happy with the news that someone else had already defiled it.

"There's also a rumor going around that he is completely resistant to genjutsu, including those cast with the Sharingan," Kabuto added.

"Impossible," Orochimaru said.

Kabuto shrugged. "I am simply repeating what I heard from our agents."

"Have the Sound Four look into it. If they can bring this-"

"Edward Elric," Kabuto supplied.

"Have them bring Elric to me, if they can do it without disrupting my schedule for Sasuke," Orochimaru said.

"If Elric proves the Sharingan can be defeated, is it even worth the effort to retrieve Sasuke?" Kabuto asked.

"Are you questioning me?" Orochimaru asked.

"Of course not, my lord," Kabuto said. "I was just…thinking out loud. Perhaps we should send a separate team for Elric. It would at least draw some attention away from your plans for Sasuke."

"And who do you suggest I send?"

"Kimimaro hasn't been out in a while."

**8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888**

**Author's note:** Sorry this took forever and a half. I had to keep rewriting things, and I tried to put in a fight scene, but then I had to take it back out, and it was all driving me nuts. There were also a lot of plot points that I had to get in so the story could progress, and they kept bogging things down. I know there wasn't much Naruto this chapter. He'll be around a lot more in the next one, and there will be fights, too. And candy. Free candy. Um, yeah. Anyway, don't forget to review.


	15. Chapter 15

**The Truth Decays**

**By Marz**

**Chapter 15**

**Konoha, **

Kakashi sat on the railing, watching his students fight. Today's argument wasn't one of the usual ones, about who was cooler (Naruto always lobbied for himself, but Sakura and passersby always voted Sasuke to victory), or who had messed up the mission (where Naruto was the undisputed champion). No, today's argument was about an Alchemist.

Sasuke's face was still red and peeling from his run-in with the Alchemist in question. Kakashi had gotten the details of the encounter from Sakura before the other two had arrived, so he knew Sasuke was the aggressor. Still, he doubted the Uchiha would forgive the not-quite-civilian-not-quite-ninja for beating him with a fire technique.

"-and Ed is so cool! Maybe he can join Team Seven!" Naruto babbled. "If he had been with us on the Wave mission he could've been like CLAP! And the bridge woulda been done and he coulda melted all of Gato's boats!"

"And who would leave?" Sakura asked. "You?"

"Why can't we have a four-man team? ANBU have four-man squads!" Naruto said, excitedly.

"Sorry Naruto, your new crush can't join the team", Kakashi teased.

"He's not my…I don't…Sakura is the only one for me!" Naruto said.

Sakura punched him in the back of the head. "I'm not your anything! Sasuke is my-"

"Can we go to the missions office yet?" Sasuke asked.

"I've already acquired our mission", Kakashi said, holding up a scroll. "And it will make one member of our squad very happy!"

"Which one?" Naruto asked, bouncing over to him. "Is it me? It's me, right? Or Sakura? It's not Sasuke, cause nothing makes him happy."

"Today's mission is crowd control", Kakashi said. "In the event Edward Elric starts razing buildings, we have to make sure no one gets trampled or sucked in or crushed."

"Awesome!" Naruto declared in an earsplitting manner as he jumped up and punched the air. "Do we have to watch his back to make sure more missing nin don't come after him? Or-"

"We are in charge of crowd control, idiot", Sakura said. "We just have to keep the civilians from getting in the way."

"Hey! Do we get to spray them with a hose if they get out of line?" Naruto asked. " Or water jutsu? Are you going to teach us a water jutsu?"

Kakashi sighed. "You won't need anything like that for the mission. You will be politely telling people to step back if they get too close. But-"

Naruto was practically falling over in excitement.

"-But if you do a good job, I might have time to teach you three a water jutsu before I leave for my mission tonight", Kakashi said with a grin.

(At least, they assumed he was grinning. His visible eye was crinkling at the corner.)

"AWESOME!" Naruto shrieked.

Naruto spent the walk over to the Alchemist's current residence talking about how impressed Ed would be with the water jutsu Kakashi was going to teach them. Kakashi normally would have tried to weasel out of a D-rank mission if he had an A-rank mission coming up, but he had to admit he was curious about the boy who had caused so much chaos.

Hyuga Neji and Tenten stood outside Gai's apartment building. Gai was supposed to have left for his mission half an hour before, but they could all hear him, still home, shouting at the top of his lungs about cupcakes covered in maple syrup not being part of a balanced and youthful breakfast. A young male voice shouted back that they were not cupcakes, they were blueberry muffins, and since they contained blueberries, they were in fact, healthy.

Kakashi struggled to contain a laugh and it turned into a snort. All five genin looked at him sharply.

"The pollen is upsetting my allergies," Kakashi said, quickly flipping another page in his book so they wouldn't think he was laughing at something unrelated to porn.

Naruto was the first to lose interest in his outburst.

"HEY ED!" Naruto bellowed. "DO YOU GOT ANY EXTRA MUFFINS!"

"NARUTO!" Sakura shrieked. "First of all, you shouldn't yell like that—it's rude. Second of all, it's 'Do you have', not 'Do you got'."

As she spoke, a muffin was pitched out the window. It had some spin on it, and Kakashi could see little trails of syrup flying off it as it sailed towards Naruto. Neji, Tenten, and Sasuke all stepped back, but Sakura was caught up in her grammar lecture, and did not move to a safe distance. The muffin mostly stopped when it struck Naruto's upstretched hand, but a great deal of syrup was knocked loose on impact, and spattered across Sakura's face and hair.

She looked ready to kill, and her sights were set on her hapless, orange-clad teammate, who was completely enthralled with his muffin, half of which was already in his mouth.

Kakashi wanted to sigh. Blondie and Pinkie really needed to work on their situational awareness.

"Is Lee around?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura started when her sensei spoke and seemed to remember that she was in the company of those who would think less of her for freaking out over a little glucose.

"He left for physical therapy already," Tenten said.

"Granny hasn't fixed him yet?" Naruto asked, licking the last crumbs from his fingers.

"She doesn't know if she can," Tenten said sadly.

"Sure she can," said Naruto. "She's probably just nervous again. She patched me up just fine when Kabuto exploded my heart with that weird chakra scalpel thing."

"Kabuto?" Sakura asked. "That guy from the chunin exams?"

"Yeah", Naruto said. "He's a spy and he works for that snake bastard Orochimaru, but I totally kicked his ass!"

"I thought you said he blew up your heart?" Tenten said.

"Well that happened too," Naruto admitted. "But first I got him with this super-secret new technique I learned. He got me at the same time I got him, but he got thrown back way far and slammed into a rock, and I could see his guts falling out before I passed out. And Granny Tsunade said pretty much nothing interesting happened after that, except she borrowed the Toad Boss's sword and used it to stab Orochimaru's giant snake through the head."

"Lady Tsunade was fighting with a sword taller than the Hokage tower?" Tenten asked with sparkling eyes.

"I guess," Naruto said. "I wasn't awake for that part. Plus, I've never seen the sword next to the tower, so I don't know if it's really taller. I guess maybe I could summon the Toad Boss to compare, but he gets pretty mad when you summon him for stupid stuff. And the tower is underground, anyway."

"You can summon toads?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, I was gonna use them when I fought you in the chunin exams, but I never got around to it during our fight. Besides, if I just squished you with a big toad, people would say the toad did all the work", Naruto said.

Neji nodded, looking a little ill. Sakura and Tenten looked skeptical. Sasuke was grinding his teeth. Kakashi supposed he should do something before the Uchiha's head exploded, but he couldn't really think of what. Naruto didn't really seem to be bragging, just explaining.

Tenten and Naruto took up the rest of the wait arguing over who the coolest ninja ever was. Tenten thought it was Lady Tsunade, while Naruto insisted it was either the Fourth Hokage, or the academy instructor Iruka. Kakashi tried not to get upset about not even being in the running.

The mysterious Ed finally emerged from the building, with Gai hovering over him.

"-and please do not encourage my students to eat an entire meal at the Dango Palace again. It will set them back weeks in their conditioning," Gai said as they got to the bottom step.

"Kakashi, my eternal rival," Gai said, almost formally. Apparently Edward was a drain on youthful energy.

"Hmmmmm?" Kakashi replied.

"I have a quick A-rank mission to run, but I'll be back by nightfall. I suppose the Hokage has given you all the pertinent information for this mission?" Gai asked.

Kakashi nodded. "Just make sure you get back before I have to leave for my mission tonight."

"I will!" Gai said. "If I do not make it back in time, I will hop around the entire village 20 times with my ankles tied together!"

"What?" Kakashi asked, flipping another page.

"Gah! So modern!" Gai said. "Good luck, my students and the students of my rival! Stay youthful! Edward! Behave yourself!"

Gai took off in a green blur.

Ed looked at the half-dozen gathered ninja, unimpressed and unrushed.

"So, anybody want to go for breakfast?" he asked.

* * *

Ibiki wiped the blood off his hands and threw the soiled towel into the trash can. The Sound ninja strapped in the chair was semiconscious and twitching. He considered the bottles and syringes laid out on the table, but the captured ninja probably would not survive another chemically-assisted wakeup call. He'd have to wait.

He picked up his report, and belatedly realized he still had something on his fingers as it soaked into the page. There was no particularly secure information in it. He would have a chunin rewrite it later.

Wantanabe Hibiki: age 23, born in Water country, recruited by Sound agents five years ago, underwent surgical alterations to install sound-sensing equipment, multiple missions into Fire country, including the invasion a little over a month ago.

Hibiki's account of the fight with Team Eight matched the genins' reports almost exactly, though the Sound ninja did describe Edward Elric as being larger, faster, and much more ninja-like than Ibiki knew him to be. He also attributed a skill with Wood-style jutsu to Elric, which Ibiki really wanted to look into.

He wished the Sound ninja would wake up so he could torture him some more.

Orochimaru had teams scouting routes into Konoha. Wantanabe didn't know how many, but he knew more than just his own group had been sent out. He thought the routes were for extraction, either of Sound spies already in the village, or of Leaf civilians his master wanted to experiment on. He didn't know for certain' though, and he didn't know the next phase of the Snake Sannin's plans.

His thoughts were interrupted as Anko barged in. She was in an annoyingly good mood. Of course, she was usually in a good mood when she was hanging around the torture department, but today she was particularly cheery. She was actually humming as she chomped another lump of dango off a skewer. Ibiki was almost shocked when Anko pulled another skewer of dango from the bag under her arm and offered it to him. He took it, but wary of tricks or poisons, did not start to eat.

"Dango Palace is having a two-for-one special," Anko said around a mouth full of dumpling.

"Wasn't Dango Palace crushed flat by a giant snake?" Ibiki asked.

Anko had been as near to tears as he'd ever seen her when she'd told him of that tragedy the month before.

"It's back. Elric put the building back together yesterday. He patched up pretty much that entire block of restaurants. Most of them are having grand reopening sales!" she said. "Maybe I should drag the brat into a dark alley and thank him," she added as she slurped the last dango off the skewer in a blatantly suggestive manner.

"The Hokage said he wasn't going to be allowed to alter buildings," Ibiki said.

"I don't think the council's going to complain about the free repairs."

"Do you believe this is going to end up free?" Ibiki asked.

Anko shrugged. "The brat wants us to let him go. He might be sucking up. Then again, all the restaurants he fixed up agreed to give him food. Either way, we win."

"Unless the one who put that curse seal on him turns him against us," Ibiki said.

Anko snorted. "I don't think Elric can be turned in any direction he doesn't want to go. If the Hyuga or whoever slapped that seal on him actually makes a demand, he'll do exactly the opposite of what they ask just for the hell of it. They'd be better off using reverse psychology or some shit like that. The brat's stubborn for the sake of stubborn, and obviously doesn't want to be used. He's not a danger to the village."

"You're making that judgment with very little evidence," Ibiki said.

"Little evidence? That moron went back to rescue the ninja who had captured him! Not to mention all the children and small animals he rescues. If it wasn't for all the cursing and temper tantrums, he'd practically be a saint. He's not a ninja. He's barely a threat."

"We know too little to make those kinds of assumptions."

"You're sure pissy today," Anko said. "Are you still mad he escaped?"

"I am not mad. I am concerned that he has been given so much freedom within the village without being properly processed. We still don't know where he's from or what he's capable of."

"I've got a good feeling about him," Anko said.

"You've been wrong before," Ibiki said.

There were 100,000 incidents he could've been referring to, but she knew the one he meant. She raged to cover her shame.

"Oh yeah!" she growled through clenched teeth. "I'd forgotten about the time you and everyone in the Village knew Orochimaru would betray us, and I refused to believe you."

"Sarcasm doesn't prove me wrong. Didn't Elric tell you he had killed more people than you'll ever meet when you interviewed him?"

Ibiki had studied the video of Anko's interview a dozen times after Elric had escaped. He had every word they exchanged memorized.

"So all his other bullshit you ignore, but that you believe," she said.

"If he admits to being dangerous, we should treat him as if he is dangerous," Ibiki said.

"He says he's dangerous, and then he goes and rescues pathetic Hyuga girls and puppies. Actions are truer than words," Anko said.

"Why are you bothering to argue with me?" Ibiki asked. "I won't change my mind and the situation is out of my hands. He's Lord Jiraiya and Maito Gai's problem now."

"I think I could get more out of him under the right circumstances," she said.

"So you intend to follow him around and subject him to your presence when you aren't on duty?" Ibiki asked.

"Yup," Anko said. "And maybe during my lunch break, too."

Ibiki thought for a moment. She wasn't asking for any kind of official sanction, and there wasn't much point in trying to stop her. Inflicting Anko on Edward wasn't quite as good as personally pulling out all the brat's teeth with pliers, but-

He took a bite of the dango she'd given him. "Is it lunch time yet?"

* * *

The Alchemist wasn't exactly what Kakashi was expecting. He was barely taller than Naruto and had a round, childish face. He certainly didn't look the 18 years he claimed. Kakashi noticed the tightness around the boy's eyes and the slight hitch in his gait. Given that he was a double amputee, that wasn't terribly surprising. He was probably in a lot of pain, but was good at hiding it. Hayate had been the same way.

Edward had just resurrected an apartment building and now he and Naruto were discussing some terrible movie they'd both seen. Every once in a while Tenten would throw in a comment about special effects, but the other genin did not join in. Neji calmly ignored the discussion, eyes moving in random patterns, scanning for threats. Sasuke glared at the back of Ed's head, to no effect, and Sakura watched Sasuke.

Kakashi tried to cast a few genjutsu on Ed, but even the powerful ones didn't cause the teenager to break his stride. Once he rubbed at his face after Kakashi cast Burning Death in Darkness, but that could've been unrelated. Kakashi tried an area genjutsu, but again, Edward was immune. He walked right through the false wall Kakashi had created, apparently not even noticing it. Naruto walked through with him, and Tenten dispersed it before following. Neji gave Kakashi a questioning glance, but the Jonin just winked and flipped another page in his book. Sasuke, if anything, seemed more upset after a show of Ed's oblivious power.

Despite being his most competent student, Sasuke had a lot of flaws. Kakashi knew the boy usually learned faster than others his age, but he became frustrated and irrationally jealous when his teammates did something better or faster. He was already obviously having trouble keeping his temper around Naruto, who had been sent on a secret mission at the Toad Sannin's request. Dealing with a near-civilian who was better at something was driving the boy up the wall.

Every few minutes Sasuke would growl a question at Edward, demanding to know how he had escaped Itachi's genjutsu. The older boy would respond in ways so aggravating, Kakashi was almost proud of him.

"What's genjutsu?"

"I must've blinked."

"I don't remember that happening."

"Was Itachi the pale guy or the fish guy?"

It was rather obvious that Sasuke was about to snap. Kakashi was thinking about separating them when he saw someone on the roof of a building across the street--someone who would provide a much better distraction.

* * *

Sasuke was coming very close to striking their client. If such an outburst weren't so Naruto-like, he probably would have done it already. The Alchemist was mocking him. Nobody just blinked their way out of genjutsu.

"Why did you blink?" Sasuke demanded, attempting to steer the conversation.

"My eyes were drying out," Ed said.

Sasuke started forward. He was only going to grab Ed's arm, but Neji slipped between them in a defensive stance.

"Your behavior is disruptive to the mission," Neji said.

Sasuke glared. People his own age rarely dared speak to him as an equal, much less reprimand him. The Hyuga boy was the top rookie of his own year, but Sasuke figured that year's competition must have been pretty weak. After all, the boy lost to Naruto in the chunin exam finals.

"Making faces behind my back is not disruptive, but neither is it professional," Neji added.

"I'm not!" Naruto said.

"Not you," Tenten said. "Sasuke."

"Sasuke's not making faces. He always looks like that," Naruto said.

"Shut up, fool," Sasuke said.

"Shutting up is disruptive to the mission," Naruto said, in a fairly accurate imitation of Neji's tone.

"Sasuke, why don't you scout ahead for trouble," Tenten suggested.

Sasuke glared at her. It was bad enough the Hyuga was trying to boss him around. He wasn't going to take orders from a nobody. He opened his mouth to tell her off, but Kakashi interrupted.

"You all realize your client has vanished?" the Jonin said, turning another page in his book.

They all turned towards the center of the group, but Ed wasn't there.

"Where'd he go?" Naruto shouted frantically.

Neji's eyes bulged as he searched the surrounding area. He spotted something and took off, Tenten and Team Seven close behind. Kakashi followed calmly after flipping to another page.

* * *

"You didn't miss me even a little bit? "Anko asked.

"I'll miss you as soon as you leave," Ed growled, struggling to free his wrists from her grasp. "Go the hell away," he added.

It wasn't much of a challenge to snatch the Alchemist from his genin guards. Kakashi was the only real threat, but he politely ignored her after she signaled him with her security code. The Uchiha brat's tantrum drew all the other brats' attention, and she snatched Edward before he had a chance to shout a warning. Borrowing the Alchemist wasn't all that hard, but she wasn't sure what to do with him now that she had him. She had a few hundred ideas of course, but no good way to choose among them.

An ANBU squad was circling, but they wouldn't move in unless she did something threatening--well, more threatening than dragging Edward behind a furniture store and pinning him against a wall. She supposed they'd rush over if there was too much blood and screaming.

"Where are you in such a hurry to get to anyway?" she asked. "You don't even have time to chat?"

"We've got nothing to talk about," he said.

"Of course we do," she said. "Our lunch date was cut short, and you didn't call to apologize. If we don't talk this out, our relationship can't move forward."

"Lunch date!? " he demanded, his face flushing and the veins in his forehead standing out. " Are you referring to the incident last week in which you barged into the prison where I was being held without cause, slapped me around, and dumped that obscene substance all over me, before knocking me unconscious?" he bellowed.

She grinned at him. "Yeah. And you didn't even send me flowers after."

"Gahhhhhhh!" he shouted in frustration. "Get away from me, you crazy, skeevy psycho!"

"You know, you're awfully cute when you're all worked up like this," she said. "You were rude before, but I'm gonna give you another chance."

"I don't want another chance!" he yelled in her face. His breath reeked of maple syrup. "I hereby forfeit all present and future chances with you, you mental train wreck! Now go away!"

Anko could hear the genin running around the building. The Hyuga boy and his teammates split up, with the girl leaping up onto to a wall to get the height advantage. The Hyuga came right at her, his hands glowing slightly. Team Seven's approach was less coordinated. The Uchiha circled wide, apparently content to let the Hyuga boy test Anko before approaching himself. The pink-haired girl just followed the Uchiha, more like a groupie than a ninja. And the Uzumaki boy was all over the place, not just disorganized, but also filling most of the available space with bright orange shadow clones.

"Let him go, you jerk!" dozens of Narutos demanded in unison.

"Maybe he doesn't want to be let go," Anko said in her most sultry voice.

The army of clones paused in confusion, looking between Anko and her prisoner.

"Yes he does," Ed growled.

Anko sighed, let go, and stepped back. Ed's fist shot toward her face, but she stepped calmly out of the way.

"So, are we still going out for drinks, Friday?" Anko asked.

"No!" Ed said.

"Alright! Tonight, then!" she said, teleporting away.

She landed on the roof, out of his line of sight. She could hear Edward shouting that he was not going drinking with her, and the Uzumaki brat telling him he needed a less-crazy girlfriend.

"Not that it's any of my business," Kakashi said, appearing in a swirl of leaves beside her, "But didn't the Hokage order your department to stay away from Elric?"

"Officially, I can't interrogate him, but she didn't ban personal contact," Anko said. "And if something interesting should slip out in a moment of passion…"

"I think there might be a flaw in your plan," Kakashi said.

"What?"

"He hates you."

She grinned at him, showing off all her teeth. "That just makes it more fun. By the way, is your genin team getting dumber?"

Kakashi tapped his book against his chin in a thoughtful manner. "You know, it's possible. They had to go without me for a whole month while I caught up on my sleep."

Anko snorted. Kakashi's month-long coma had scared the shit out of every ninja in the village. Uchiha Itachi was still at large, and if he could do that to Kakashi and just wander off, what chance did the rest of them have? Of course, that made figuring out what gave Edward immunity even more important.

"What's your read on the brat?" Anko asked.

"Which brat?" Kakashi asked, playing dumb.

"The one with the metal limbs," she said.

"He's trouble," he replied. "We're probably all doomed."

"But in a good way, right?"

"Sure," Kakashi said, and flipped another page.

Anko snorted and teleported away. She wasn't even sure if she could count it as a mission accomplished, but at least she had reminded Edward that she existed. Her lunch break was almost over, and she was headed back to the interrogation department when her curse mark twitched.

She froze, poised on the ledge of an apartment complex balcony, eyes scanning the roofs around her. She stretched out her senses, searching for traces of the person who could have set it off. The mark had stilled, apparently dormant again, though the pain, like the jab of a dull needle, took longer to fade.

But it did fade and she was left alone on the roof, sweating despite the bright sunny weather.

* * *

Convulsions and spasms were never pretty, but when they struck Edward, they were at least bizarre. It was obvious he was no longer truly conscious, but his body was still trying to fold itself around the seal burned into the center of his back, resulting in the boy's heels meeting the back of his head as his hands clawed at the mark. He looked rather like a dying spider.

Hyuga Neji was stabbing at the boy with chakra-charged fingers, probably trying to close off the seal. He did not appear to be having any luck. Kakashi stepped in, scooping up the Alchemist and teleporting to the hospital. As soon as Kakashi's feet hit solid ground, the seal had shut down. Nurses rushed forward to take the limp body from him.

It seemed like things were going so well, too. Naruto had convinced the Alchemist to fix the holes he'd melted in the village wall by arguing that people's dogs might wander out through the wall into the forest, and subsequently be eaten by tigers. It was a very flimsy excuse, but Ed had agreed to do it.

Kakashi was somewhat concerned that as soon as they got near the wall, Edward would try to make a run for it, but they were still a hundred meters away when the seal on Edward's back had activated. Konoha would have to fix its walls the old-fashioned way, he supposed.

Team Seven and Team Gai arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, Naruto in the lead, demanding to know what happened to Ed, and if Ed was alright, and if Ed still wanted to go to lunch.

"His caged-bird seal was activated," Neji said.

"Ed has one of those, too?" Naruto asked.

"Someone put it on him after Team Eight returned him to the hospital," Neji said. "Apparently they did not want him to leave again."

"Who-" Naruto's confused look morphed into one of anger. "Who would do that to him?"

"The leaders of my clan claimed to have no part in it, but our seal was used. At this time, I am not sure what set it off. It could have been proximity to the village wall or distance from the anchoring seal. We could take him towards the wall again, some distance away, and use triangulation to figure out where the anchor is," Neji said.

"If the anchor is mobile, they could be moving it after every activation to throw off that type of tracking," Sakura said, thoughtfully.

"Someone put a curse seal on him?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes. While he was unconscious at the hospital," Kakashi said, while looking at Sasuke. "It's a pretty good way to keep someone under control, wouldn't you say?"

Sasuke glared, but then he started to look thoughtful. Unfortunately, Naruto chose that moment to butt in.

"You mean Ed's had that thing on him all day? Why didn't he say anything?"

"He's had it for a few days," Tenten said. "And he's been trying to burn it off since he found it. Maybe he's embarrassed that he hasn't figured out how to get rid of it."

"Why would he be embarrassed?" Naruto asked. "It's not like he got drunk and got a really bad tattoo or something, unless the seal looks like a really bad tattoo. Does it? Have you seen it? Does it look like something girly?"

"It's the same as Neji's," Tenten said.

"Oh. Well that sucks," Naruto said. "But Ed will probably figure out how to get it off pretty soon. He is way awesome. Maybe Pervy Sage can help him."

"Lord Jiraiya has already been assigned to help him," Kakashi said.

Naruto nodded. "Well, then he should be seal-free in no time.

Tenten started to contradict him, but Kakashi signed for her to keep quiet, and unlike his own students, she actually obeyed. Kakashi wondered what it would be like to have a student like that.

"Since Ed's not fixing things anymore, does that mean the mission is over?" Naruto asked. "Are you going to teach us that jutsu now?"

Kakashi looked up and down the hospital corridor and sighed. He'd probably never know.

* * *

The room was fuzzy and white and lacked things to write on. Ed was having trouble accounting for a resonant feedback loop and he couldn't quite keep the layout of the array straight in his head. He wondered if it was because of the drugs, or yet another near-death-experience. Those were getting very old, very fast. He traced the lines out in the air with his fingers. He was partially satisfied with the answer.

He was pretty sure he could take the caged bird seal off of someone else. He hadn't wanted to admit it to himself, but he'd hit a road block with the seal they'd stuck on him. He did need another alchemist to get it off. Either that, or he'd have to risk going through the Gate, putting his body on hold while he altered it. He was not even sure how well that would work, and he certainly didn't want to pay the toll.

Ed wondered if he should tell Neji about his breakthrough. The kid wanted that damn seal off as badly as Ed did, probably much worse, since he'd had it so much longer. Neji didn't just want his seal off, though. He wanted the seals off of all his relatives, too. He'd given Ed the ballpark estimate of 20 people who would both want their curse seals removed, and be willing to sneak off and have it done without the permission of the main branch family. There were at least 35 others who'd want theirs off, too, if the main branch allowed it, which was as likely as snow in Hell.

Neji would want Ed to start peeling off those seals right away, since as soon as the main branch noticed some of their subordinates were seal-less, they'd cling tighter to those still bound. And Ed would be one of those bound. Ed could help them, but he'd be at the top of the main branch shit-list if he did, and if the main branch were the ones who'd branded him, they could kill him with a thought.

Of course, if they weren't the ones who'd put the seal on him, he'd probably still be pretty screwed.

Ed sighed and looked around the room. The Death God was standing in the corner, his horns touching the soundproof ceiling tiles. Ed wondered if the entity was really there or if he was hallucinating.

Death was looking at him funny.

Ed gave him the finger.

Death appeared unconcerned.

"What are you doing here?" Ed finally asked.

"**We are very close at the moment,"** Death said. "**If you aren't careful you'll end up food instead of family."**

"Won't that be cannibalism?" Ed asked.

"**What's wrong with cannibalism**?" Death asked.

Ed gave him the finger with his other hand this time. Raising his arm made his back hurt.

"**If you took a few souls, you could rid yourself of that defiled flesh,"** Death said.

"I'm not going to do that," Ed said. "I've almost got it figured out, anyway. I don't really need that much energy to get rid of the seal, but it's like breaking the circuit that I'm using to power the breaking of the circuit. Stupid cyclical paradox. I think I can get it off someone else, but I'd need another Alchemist to get it off of me."

"**Then perhaps someone else in the family can help you**," Death said.

Ed froze, hope and fear running through him. _It could be Al! It could be Al! It could be Al! _He struggled to get control of himself.

"Who else did you bring out of the void into this world?" Ed asked, trying to sound as if he didn't care.

"**Share a meal with me,"** Death said. "**We will discuss it."**

Death always grinned, but Ed was pretty sure in this case it was a mocking grin. The thing in the Gate grinned the same way, though its teeth weren't nearly as pointy.

"Have the others shared a meal with you?" he asked.

"**Yes,"** Death said.

"Then I don't need to know anymore," Ed said. "I know it's not one of my friends."

"**Are you so sure?"** Death asked.

"I am," Ed said.

Death didn't contradict him, but instead shrugged and faded away.

It couldn't be Al then. Al would never steal another person's soul. But would any of his other allies do such a thing? The other human sacrifices, Mustang, Izumi, Marcoh, and Hohenheim, which of them would do it? All had sworn never to make more Philosopher's stones, and all had good reason not to. But they were all pragmatists.

Maybe it wasn't one of them at all. Maybe it was Kimblee or another State Alchemist who just got sucked in. But if that were the case, why make the little dolls that looked like Al? That was a message directed at him. That would also mean they knew he might be here. Maybe Death had told the others a lot more than he had told Ed.

_And this stupid seal means I'm a sitting duck_, he thought. Word would get out because of all the buildings he'd put back up. No matter how much the ninja tried to suppress it, Ed had done it all out in the open and rumor was going to get around. He hadn't cared if other ninja knew of him or thought him a threat, but if someone like Kimblee, or worse, one of the Homunculi had made it into this world, he'd be in real trouble.

He wished Death had kept his big mouth shut.

"Edward?" Gai asked, poking his head in through the door. He was oddly quiet. Ed wondered if the Jonin could feel some kind of echo from the Death God in the room.

"Totally wasn't my fault this time," Ed said.

"Yes, I heard," Gai said. "Do you feel well enough to return to my most youthful residence?"

"Sure," Ed said.

* * *

Lee had been dreading Master Gai's return, not only because he would be bringing Edward with him, but also because Lee had once again missed his appointment with the medics. They wanted him to make a decision about his surgery, since the Hokage was very busy and couldn't keep shuffling her village duties around to see to him. Lady Tsunade hadn't actually said she was too busy, but the med-nin at physical therapy had let him know that performing the operation would take up a lot of their leader's precious time.

He heard Gai and Edward on the landing, and considered running for his room, but he wouldn't make it before they saw him, and he didn't want to be caught doing something so obviously rude. The door swung open.

"My most amazing student, Lee! How did your appointment go?" Gai asked.

"As well as can be expected," Lee said. "They want me to make my decision soon."

"I understand," Gai said. "I must finish up the report from my last mission, and then we shall discuss it, yes?"

Lee nodded. Gai smiled and struck a pose, then headed for his room. Lee thought his teacher looked very tired. He had a suspicion Edward was responsible. He looked over at the other teenager, who was poking through a plastic bag that Lee hadn't noticed him bringing in.

"We stopped at the hardware store on the way back from the hospital," Ed said.

Lee did not know what to say to that, so he nodded. He watched as their surly houseguest went to the table and set out a variety of painful-looking implements, as well as assorted polishes and oils.

"What are you doing?" Lee asked.

"I'm baking a cake," Edward muttered as he inspected a wrench.

"You are lying," Lee said.

"Obviously," Ed said. He looked back at Lee and sighed. "I'm going to do some maintenance on my automail."

"I thought you didn't know how to fix it."

"I can't make new automail, but I can do some basic stuff to keep it working. I've had it half my life. I've learned that much."

Lee peered at him. "How did you come to need it?"

Ed unscrewed a half-dozen jars and the room filled with the reek of machine oil and solvents.

"I didn't tell that bastard Ibiki," Ed said. "Why would I tell you?"

Lee got up and hobbled to the window, and then leaned against the wall so he could open it with his good hand. I do not plan to pass the information on. I simply want to know.

Ed grunted in response.

"Were you in a fight?" Lee persisted.

"Not the kind you're thinking of," he said.

Ed took a strange, hooked bit of metal and pushed it into his metal wrist. He turned it and his forearm popped open. Lee could see the hydraulics and gears as Ed moved his fingers. Ed took a set of tweezers in his flesh-and-blood hand and began picking at things in the metal one.

"Do you regret losing it?" Lee asked.

"Couldn't ask a more asinine question?" Ed asked in return.

Lee flinched a little bit, but after gathering his thoughts, he said, "Yes."

Ed looked up at him. "What?"

"Yes, I could've asked a more asinine question. I could've asked 'Did it hurt?'"

The comeback was slow, which Ed suspected had to do with Lee's normal conversations not extending much beyond the power of youth. Maybe Lee just didn't have it in him to be a sarcastic cripple. Some people just weren't cut out for the job.

"I lost the leg in an accident, so if you mean, do I regret being arrogant and ignorant and doing the stupid thing that cost me my leg, then yes. But everything else, the arm and all the other pieces after that, no, Ed said. And I can't honestly say I wish I'd never done it at all. If I hadn't blundered into that first catastrophe, I'd probably have been killed along with everyone else, staring up at the sky and wondering why the world was coming to an end.

Lee wondered about the other suddenly becoming so forthright. He supposed it could have something to do with all the volatile chemicals in the air. Even standing by the window, Lee was feeling lightheaded. Of course, Ed could just be making things up.

"What happened to you?" Ed asked.

"A ninja from Suna crushed my limbs during the chunin exam," Lee said.

"Did it hurt?" Ed asked.

"No," Lee said. "Not at all."

"You're lying," Ed said, smiling a little.

Lee nodded.

"Do you need any help with that?" Lee asked.

"Sure," Ed said. "Pull up a wrench."

* * *

They ghosted along roofs, slipping past oblivious Leaf Ninja. It was as easy as it had been during the invasion. Their enemy had learned nothing.

Uchiha Sasuke walked through the streets as oblivious as the rest. He was scowling and grinding his teeth, steaming mad about something, probably his brother. Orochimaru said the boy's life revolved around some fantasy about getting revenge on the S-class ninja. They were ordered to promise him that. Their master seemed to think it would take little more than that and a show of force to convince the boy to abandon his people.

"I can't believe we're being wasted on him," Kidomaru said. They had paused while Sasuke beat the living daylights out of a random tree. "He's a melodramatic little brat."

"So were you and you've gotten a little better," Sakon said.

"Not much," Tayuya said. "Should we take him now? Looks like he's headed for the Jonin's neighborhood."

"Scared?" Sakon said.

She snorted. "We're supposed to get this done fast. He needs a new body soon. We don't have all night to kill every nosy ninja that comes running. A sour note will ruin the whole piece."

"Don't you two start that damn music crap again. Life's a game, not a song," Kidomaru said.

"Suck it, you tone-deaf little shit," Tayuya replied.

Jirobo started to correct her, but she cut him off with an obscene gesture.

Sasuke gave up his assault on the tree and took off full speed down the street. He wasn't being particularly stealthy, but they had to hurry to keep up. He ran into a neighborhood where neither his teammates nor his sensei lived, and then rushed into an apartment building.

"What do you think he's doing there?" Kidomaru asked.

"Doesn't matter," Sakon said. "We'll take him when he comes out."

"There're a lot of ANBU lurking around," Jirobo said.

"There could be fewer," Sakon said with a smile.

* * *

Ed wasn't quite sure how it happened, but they ended up bonding over his disassembled arm. He supposed he understood why the kid didn't want to hang around him at first. Ed didn't find himself longing for the company of other cripples exactly, though he didn't shy away from them either.

Gai had been so thrilled when he saw them speaking civilly, he promised to bring back dinner after he turned in his paperwork. The ANBU were supposed to be available if anything went really wrong in the half hour it would take Gai to complete the task. Ed considered using Alchemy to turn the ninja's apartment orange while he was gone, but decided he'd caused the man enough grief, at least for the week. Apparently, Lee was supposed to get some big, risky surgery, which they hadn't mentioned to Ed, so as not to worry him.

"So she gave you fifty-fifty odds?" Ed asked.

Lee nodded.

"Based on what?"

"I do not know," Lee said.

Ed picked up another torturous-looking implement and slid it into the elbow of his right arm. "No idea at all; shock or blood loss, rejection of grafts, risky anesthesia, secondary infection?"

"I suppose it could be any of those. The mednin are going to remove bone fragments from my spinal column as well as rebuilding my leg and arm. I do not know exactly how they will go about it," Lee admitted.

"How long will it take?" Ed asked.

"A few hours," Lee said.

"At a time?"

"No, total," Lee said.

"So in a few hours you could be back on your feet and getting on with your life?" Ed asked.

Lee nodded. Ed watched the kid, who looked scared and beaten down. He wanted to say something helpful, but in situations like this, most of what came out of his mouth could be paraphrased 'Get up off your ass'. Nonetheless, Ed gave it a whirl.

"Automail surgeons usually have a 70 percent chance of success. That's average, though. Granny Pinako, my surgeon, she was closer to 90 percent. She kept her knives clean, knew her anatomy and engineering, watched her drug mixes, all that stuff. Still, she'd get people whose hearts couldn't take the shock, whose bones couldn't take the stress. We lived right by her, so when things went wrong, you could hear the screams.

"There was screaming when things went right, too. Your body can never be entirely convinced that all that metal is supposed to be in it. I sat in a wheelchair for too long, looking at my stumps, before I got the push I needed to go for it," Ed paused.

"A grade-A bastard pointed out to me that if I didn't get up, didn't try to move on, that's all I'd ever be, a lump in a chair, useless to those who depended on me. You aren't that badly off. You can still move. You can function. You can get a job that isn't too stressful and live to be a hundred. Or you could do this, have this operation and be a ninja again, go off to fight and get killed in some crazy battle before you hit twenty. Dying in surgery," Ed said, pausing again. "That's not something to think about. Pick one life or the other. Death is at the end of all of them. Don't piss yourself over dying on the operating table. If you die there, it won't bother you, because you'll never wake up."

Lee looked at Ed, who shrugged and went back to poking at his automail after his little speech. He wasn't sure if he'd made the kid feel better or worse, but he looked kind of dazed.

Someone knocked on the door.

"I got it," Ed said, getting out of his chair.

He looked through the peephole, and got a fisheye view of Uchiha Sasuke's scowling face. He considered just not answering, but theoretically the overly angst-y teenager could be there to speak to Lee or Gai. Ed unlocked the door and opened it about three inches, with his metal foot bracing the bottom so the other boy couldn't just push his way in.

"What?" Ed asked.

"Tell me how you did it," Sasuke demanded.

"Did what?" Ed asked.

"You know what!" he growled.

"Do I?" Ed asked, being as aggravating as humanly possible.

"Who is it?" Lee called.

"Just some goofball selling magazine subscriptions," Ed said.

"What magazine?" Lee asked.

Ed sighed and stepped back, letting the door swing open, so Lee could see their visitor.

"Sasuke? You are selling magazines?" the green-clad boy asked.

"I am not!" Sasuke said in a huff.

Lee looked at Ed, but the other just shrugged.

"Would you like to come in?" Lee asked.

Sasuke stepped through the door, but didn't seem to know what to do from there. He turned to glare at Ed.

"How did you get away from Itachi?" Sasuke demanded again.

"Blinked," said Ed.

"There has to be more to it! You're immune to all other genjutsu, and the worst one ever created, you just shake off. How do you do it?"

Ed slouched down into a chair. "I've got no clue how genjutsu does or does not work. Where I come from, there's no such thing. Nobody does jutsu at all."

"I think you're lying," Sasuke said.

"I don't care what you think," Ed said.

"Why are you doing this? Why won't you tell me?" Sasuke demanded.

"Because you're mentally unbalanced? Because you tried to cut my throat? Because I hate your guts? Take your pick!" Ed said.

"Itachi tried to kill you! Don't you want him dead? If you teach me how to block genjutsu, I can kill him!" Sasuke said.

"With what? Kindness?" Ed said with a snort. "I kicked your ass and I can't do any genjutsu at all.'

"You didn't kick my ass!"

"Oh, that's right, I charbroiled it. Thank you for correcting me," Ed said.

Sasuke grabbed the back of Ed's chair and yanked it away from the table, scraping four lines into Gai's kitchen floor. Lee got up from his own seat, hands clenched. Ed looked over his shoulder at Sasuke. Ed didn't want to avoid a fight, exactly, but now that he knew how bad off Lee was, he didn't want the younger boy involved. He also didn't want to wreck up Gai's apartment, even though it wouldn't be too hard to fix it afterward.

"Why don't we take this outside?" Ed asked.

Sasuke, glaring, nodded and headed for the door. Ed got up and walked behind him, a bit slower. As soon as Sasuke stepped out into the hall, Ed slammed the door closed. He clapped his hands together and touched the walls. They glowed for a moment and then closed over the place where the door had been.

The second he realized he'd been had, Sasuke started pounding on the blank wall. Ed grinned at Lee. Lee smiled back rather nervously.

"He can break through the wall, if he really wants," Lee said.

Ed shrugged. The banging went on for another five minutes. When the noise stopped, Ed grinned triumphantly and went back to his seat. The peace and quiet was interrupted a moment later as a high whistling sound came drifting in the window.

"What's he doing now?" Ed demanded.

"I don't think that's Sasuke," Lee said. "He doesn't play the flute."

Ed went to the window and shouted. "Knock it off!"

"Who's playing?" Lee asked.

"I don't see anyone," Ed said, scanning the street. He definitely didn't see Sasuke out there. The whistling continued. It was like nails on a chalkboard.

"It's the middle of the night! CUT IT OUT WITH THE FxxKING FLUTE!" Ed bellowed.

It was a quarter till nine, but Ed wasn't above exaggeration. The music paused for a moment, but as soon as Ed walked away from the window, it started up again.

"I don't see what the problem is," Lee said. "The sound is barely noticeable and not unpleasant."

He watched as Ed went through Gai's cabinets, muttering to himself, before returning to the window with a few overripe tomatoes.

"I see her now," Ed said. "She's just standing there across the street."

Lee yawned. "It's really kind of nice. He put his head down on the table, but Ed's next words pried his eyes open and his head up again."

"WILL. YOU. PLEASE. SHUT. THE. FxxK. UP!" Ed shouted, throwing a tomato between each word.

There was a shriek, and a barrage of cursing came echoing up to them.

"YOU LITTLE FREAK! I'M GOING TO COME UP THERE AND TEAR YOUR FxxKING HEAD OFF!" a shrill female voice raged.

"GO AHEAD AND TRY, YOU CRAZY BITCH!" Ed yelled back. "YOU'D BE DOING ME A FAVOR, CAUSE I WOULDNT HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOUR CRAPPY MUSIC ANY MORE! YOU SUCK!"

Ed came back from the window and sat down. Lee opened his mouth to say something, but a yawn cut him off. The music started up again. Ed slammed his hands on the table. Something about that song just bugged the hell out of him. He supposed he could just seal up the window so he wouldn't hear it, but he decided for the good of the neighborhood he wouldn't let it go. He didn't think there was any more bad food to throw. He'd just have to be extra loud. He leaned out the window, taking a deep breath.

A net of white sticky threads shot up from the street below, splattering across Ed's face and upper body. One of his arms was pinned to his chest. The other he could move from the elbow down. He grabbed at the sill with his free hand, but he couldn't see.

A sudden yank pulled him out the window.

* * *

**Authors note:** Ack! Forever long on the update, I know. I was having transition issues and problems writing Sasuke. And then there was all this dialogue that had to get said for stuff that was going to happen later and everything got all unbalanced. Gack! If you're still reading this, let me know what you think. The next chapter will be mostly fighting; ninety percent fighting, ten percent puppies.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Truth Decays**

**Chapter 16**

**By Marz**

Sasuke was feeling stupid and seeing red. He'd fallen for what was probably the most obvious ploy ever invented. He really wanted to break down the wall and wring that arrogant idiot's neck. Sasuke gave the wall one last kick and headed for the stairs. Returning to the training ground would be the smart thing to do. He could work off some of his anger before he did something stupid.

He changed his mind almost immediately, and instead went up to the roof. Edward did not think like a ninja, and probably had not sealed off the windows of Gai's apartment. Sasuke could use chakra to walk down the walls and get in. The door to the roof was unlocked, but something heavy was leaning on it from the outside. He focused his chakra and shoved, sending the heavy thing tumbling. He expected the obstruction to clatter, but it flopped over with a dull thump.

He recognized the sound.

Sasuke drew a kunai and slipped out through the door. His eyes adjusted quickly. An ANBU lay dead on the tiles, his head twisted completely around. He saw someone else, crouched on a building across the street, but as he focused on the figure, he realized it was another ANBU, also dead. The corpse had been propped upright, tied to the side of a chimney with almost invisible thread.

He heard Edward's shrill voice, cutting through a light musical whistle that Sasuke would not even have noticed if it hadn't suddenly stopped. He strained his ears. Clothing flapped on lines and a cat's yowl made the hair on his arms stand up. He heard the scuff of shoes against tiles by one of the air conditioners.

Sasuke slunk toward that side of the roof, but jumped back just in time. A ninja landed on the tiles he'd just vacated. The moon was full, giving Sasuke ample light to observe his opponent. He was a Sound ninja with over-long light blue hair and a huge lumpy growth on the back of his neck. The ninja had a large scroll on his back, but his hands were empty. That didn't make him any less dangerous. His hands were free to weave jutsu.

Sasuke sensed the presence of another person moving behind him, but he kept himself from reacting. He didn't want to give too much away.

"Did your little friend lock you out?" the Sound ninja in front of him asked.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and didn't answer. He heard Edward yelling again about the music, which Sasuke realized was an auditory genjutsu.

"Not a friend, actually," Sasuke said. "What do you want?"

"You think I'd just tell you?"

"You might," Sasuke said. "You seem to like hearing yourself talk."

"So much arrogance," the Sound ninja chided, "From such a little crybaby."

The Sound ninja ducked the half dozen shuriken Sasuke threw at him, but he didn't move to attack. Instead, the one behind him did. Sasuke leapt up, intending to flip over his charging attacker, but he had underestimated the other Sound ninja's height. He adapted right away, using his opponent's shoulder as another jumping-off point and kicking him in the side of the head for good measure.

The large ninja stumbled but regained his balance right away, turning to face Sasuke before he even landed. Sasuke tried to spring further back, but when his feet touched the roof, his legs gave out and he sprawled at the large ninja's feet. The ninja stomped down on Sasuke's chest.

The large ninja leaned forward, crushing the air out of Sasuke's lungs. Sasuke pushed at the ninja's leg with one hand and tried to fish a knife out of his holster with the other, but neither of his limbs obeyed him. His arms flopped and his hands wouldn't close.

"That's it? Really?" the blue-haired ninja asked with a smirk as he joined his oversized teammate. "I just can't see what our Master wanted from you. You're pretty, sure, but you've got no substance. Jirobo's barely draining any of your chakra and you've turned into pudding."

Sasuke couldn't even gather the energy to curse at his tormenters. He felt the curse mark on his neck pounding against the seals that bound it. Its pulsing was louder than his heartbeat. He needed more power and it was right there. Kakashi had warned him that if he didn't keep the mark sealed, it would eat away at him.

"You know," the blue-haired ninja said. "I don't think it's worth the effort to haul your ass back to Orochimaru. Edward Elric is the real prize, anyway."

Jirobo yelped and leapt back as Sasuke spat fire in his face. Sasuke's fingers had formed the seals so quickly they felt dislocated. His entire body was buzzing with energy. His teeth chattered as he rolled to his feet. His eyes scanned the roof, picking up lines and whorls of chakra and tiny twitches of motion. He could see the chakra inside the curse mark as it crawled across and under his skin. His Sharingan seemed to have a mind of its own. He knew this level of activity was draining, but he couldn't make himself care.

The blue-haired Sound ninja was watching him, smirking at him. Sasuke rushed him, but a second before they closed, Sasuke skipped aside. The tiny voice in the back of his mind, the instinct for self-preservation, made itself heard. These ninja had killed at least two ANBU. Taijutsu wasn't going to solve this.

Chidori would.

He wove the seals. Needles of light sprung from his hand, crackling and chirping.

The blue-haired ninja laughed. "That's a pretty little sound, but it doesn't resonate. It's all jingle and no chords. Real music has counterpoints."

"Shove it, choir boy," Sasuke hissed.

"Come here and I will."

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Ed barely had time to process the thought "I'm falling" when he landed on a giving surface. It stretched and sprang back under his weight. He expected to tumble off whatever it was, but it stuck to his clothes, skin, and hair. He struggled to pull free. The goop that had sprayed him in the face was covering his eyes, nose, and all but one corner of his mouth. The surface tilted suddenly and Ed felt it rolling up around him, pinning his arms to his sides. He finally hit the pavement.

"That was so easy it wasn't even worth playing," a male voice complained. "I don't know why Lord Orochimaru wanted us to bring him with us."

"Don't get cocky, you fxxking moron," the flute girl hissed. "We're only half done."

The male ninja wasn't listening.

"Hey, Kid!" he called. "Aren't you going to come out and play? We've got your little friend, but he isn't much fun."

Ed saw red. He struggled inside the gooey cocoon, but his captor just laughed as he thrashed and cursed. He realized Lee must've been looking out of the apartment, but the poor kid was trapped because Ed hadn't put the door back after he'd closed Sasuke out. He hoped Lee didn't try to jump out the window.

"Hear that? He misses you!" called the ninja.

A hand clamped down on his ankle, picked him up, and shook him. He was tossed over a shoulder that felt very wrong. He wondered what kind of weapons this guy had strapped to his back.

"If you don't want him back, we're keeping him!" his captor mocked.

Ed wasn't sure what the goo was made of, but it seemed organic. He focused on the array carved into his automail hand, and split up everything with carbon in it. He hit the ground again. The goo wrapped around his head did almost nothing to muffle his would-be captor's screaming.

The goo didn't evaporate or anything that convenient, but it got brittle and he was able to kick and flop around, breaking free. He clawed at his face. He could feel a lot of it still stuck there, but he could open his eyes, at least.

Ed wasn't much happier now that he could see them. The closest ninja was probably responsible for the spider webs, since he had six arms. The uppermost on the right side looked badly mangled, probably caught by the carbon deconstruction. The flute girl was close enough to be seen clearly now. She had pink hair and what looked like a colander on her head. They both had music notes on their headbands.

"You fxxkers again?" Ed demanded.

Ed checked his pocket and found his most recently acquired lighter. The flute girl and the spider boy tensed as he raised the small object. As he flipped it open, they attacked.

They were much faster than he expected, but not fast enough. He dodged under a stream of goo that shot from the spider boy's mouth and leapt back as the girl tried to bash his head in with her flute. He blocked her second swing with his automail arm. It bounced off with a clang that rattled his spine. She grabbed at him with her free hand, but he slapped the array on his left hand against her arm, and she leapt away. She lost a sleeve to the carbon-breakup but kept all her skin.

The spider-boy spat another net of goo at him. Ed leapt over it this time and it hit the ground. He landed splay-legged on his toes, carefully avoiding the sticky threads. Ed flicked the steel on the lighter, and the spider-boy dodged back.

He needn't have bothered. A column of flame shot straight up in the air, lighting up the entire neighborhood, bright as day, drawing the attention of every ninja and his grandmother.

"You little shit!" the flute girl hissed, rushing Ed again.

He brushed his hands together and then punched at her face. She took the bait, grabbing his wrist. She started to swing the flute at his head again, but he lifted both feet off the ground, hanging from her and swinging out of the way. He'd hoped to pull her off-balance but she had no problem supporting his entire weight with one hand. Not put out, Ed kicked both feet into her sternum.

She gasped and her grip on his arm loosened enough for him to pull free. He didn't manage even one step away before she jabbed him in the gut with the flute and he folded over it. She followed up with a kick at his face. He managed to put his arms up in a weak X-block but he was knocked backward off his feet. He hit the ground and another web of goo hit him before he could get up.

He tried to sit up, but the goo seemed to shrink, pinning him more tightly to the ground. A strand of webs across his chin kept him from lifting his head. The flute girl's feet appeared, upside down, in front of his face. He couldn't feel any of the goo against his palms, but he tried the carbon-breakdown reaction again, anyway. The flute girl's foot drew back and slammed into the side of his head.

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It was agony to watch. Ed tried to fight, but the Sound ninja were too fast. Lee had moved with that speed once, but now he could barely turn his head fast enough to keep track of them.

Lee dragged himself away to grab a satchel of kunai from the closet. An orange flash of light nearly blinded him and hot air blew the curtains and sent papers flying everywhere. By the time he got back to the window, the fire was gone. Ed lay pinned to the ground under a layer of webbing. He was silent and still.

Lee could throw with his uninjured arm, but his crippled leg came close to destroying his balance. The first kunai actually hit Ed, but it bounced off his metal arm. The Sound girl moved slightly, but she didn't look particularly concerned. Lee threw again and again, but each time she sidestepped with a snort.

"Kidomaru, aren't you done yet?" she asked.

Glass broke in Lee's bedroom.

"One minute," Kidomaru called.

Lee moved towards the kitchen, and just made it past the counter when the Sound ninja came out of the hall. Lee pitched a kunai. The sound-ninja spat out a blob of goo that knocked the knife out of the air. The next three knives met the same fate, and then the satchel was empty.

Lee knew he didn't have a chance, but he knew the patrols must've seen the flash of fire. He couldn't win, but he could stall. He moved his creaking limbs into one of the few gokan stances that his crippled body could support. He tried to make his braced and damaged limbs look functional and threatening.

Kidomaru laughed at him.

"You're not even worth one point," the older boy mocked. "You're the one who can't use ninjutsu, aren't you?"

"I do not know how points are assigned, but the second part of your statement is at least somewhat accurate," Lee said. "You are one of the ninja involved in the assassination of the Third Lord Hokage. You will not escape again."

"Ha! How are you gonna stop me?"

"I do not have to," Lee said, grinning and looking at something over the Sound ninja's shoulder.

The Sound ninja snorted. "You think I'd fall for the oldest trick in the book?" He charged.

He moved so fast, Lee's eyes could not track him, but Lee was used to even faster attacks. His punch snapped the Sound ninja's head around, and though it felt like he was grinding broken glass in his joints, he kicked out with his crippled leg, sending Kidomaru stumbling backwards. The Sound ninja even tripped over one of Master Gai's weight sets and sprawled on the floor.

Unfortunately, Lee could not press his momentary advantage. Something in his hip had shifted when his kick landed, and his leg was now just agonizing dead weight.

Lee was still close enough to the table to pick up one of Ed's pry bars, and he held it tightly in his uninjured hand. The Sound ninja probably wouldn't be stupid enough to charge into Lee's reach again, but he could hope, and if all else failed, he could throw it.

"QUIT SCREWING AROUND!" The female Sound ninja shrieked from outside.

The six-armed boy stood up. Despite the blood on his face, he smirked.

"That was all you had, eh? And I walked right into it. Penalty to me then," he said. "I know a way to make this fun, though."

He spat out a web of netting and stretched it out with one pair of hands while another pair wove seals. Lee recognized them as a summoning even as the ninja splattered blood across the web. He wasn't exactly shocked when the smoke faded and a dozen pit bull-sized spiders appeared in Gai's living room. The closest spider exploded into ichor and smoke, shrieking, as the pry bar punched through its body.

"WE'RE GOING NOW, YOU MOTHERFXXKER!" the female Sound nin shrieked, her voice even louder than before.

"Eleven chances now," the spider ninja said. "But I bet you won't get more than three before they get you."

He moved to the window as the spiders inched towards Lee.

"NOW, DIPSHIT!" she roared.

"KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON, TRAMP!" the spider ninja yelled back.

He waved at Lee and hopped out.

Lee glared at his remaining opponents. He never thought of spiders as pack animals before. He supposed they weren't, really. Maybe being surrounded just led him to assume collusion. Most of them scuttled forward cautiously, but a pair of them leapt.

Lee caught the legs of one and used it to bat the other aside. The necessary twisting overbalanced him and he nearly toppled. The spider in his hand thrashed, and he dropped it. He planned to stomp it with his good leg, but it hopped back too fast.

There was no shortage of alternate targets. He caught the power cord and yanked the blender off the counter, swinging it at the nearest spiders. It bounced off a spider's body and the glass canister shattered on the floor. He swung again, and the jagged edges sliced into another spider's head. It shrieked and dispelled in a cloud of greenish mist. The cord snapped on the third swing and rest of the blender flew away and crashed uselessly in the living room.

His searching fingers found the handle of a skillet in the dish rack. He swung it overhand and it crushed the nearest spider into a paste. His teeth were already pulled back in a grimace, but for a second it became a smile. He swung the skillet out in an arc and sent the nearest spiders tumbling back. They weren't injured enough to dispel, but they backed up a little, wary of the cookware, if not its wielder. He thought he had a moment to catch his breath.  
Lightning pain shot up his crippled arm. Lee spun, swinging around to crush the spider that had somehow managed to climb the wall behind him. Its body shattered, spraying the wall with green slime that effervesced away seconds later, but the poison the summoned creature had injected into him remained. The burning sensation crawled up past his elbow.

Another spider leapt at him and Lee barely raised the skillet in time. The spider's weight bore him to the floor, but its fangs couldn't get through the iron. Its feet scrabbled at Lee, scraping his chest and face, trying to push his makeshift shield out of the way.

The burning reached his shoulder and spread rapidly through his chest. His lungs felt like they were shriveling and the spider seemed to gain a ton in an instant. Another one landed on his legs and he kicked wildly, knocking it off. He rolled over and pushed the spider away. He swung the skillet around, intending to crush it, but the skillet slipped from his suddenly shaking hand and clattered across the floor.

Two more spiders charged him and Lee retreated. His back hit the refrigerator and there was nowhere left to go. His vision started to tunnel and he gagged as the burning sensation swept through his stomach.

He reached up behind him, scattering magnets and shopping lists before his hand found the handle. He tried to pull himself to his feet, but the refrigerator door came open, dumping him back on the floor. Edward's leftovers tumbled out all around him. Lee grabbed takeout bags and whipped them at the spiders. They hissed and clacked as assorted dumplings and noodles splattered across them, but they didn't back off.

Suddenly inspired, Lee yanked the racks out and threw those, too. He dragged himself inside, and yanked the door closed.

It was pitch black and the air reeked of vinegar. A jar of pickles had shattered inside, but it took Lee a minute to realize he was sitting in broken glass. His throat was closing up, and he was pretty sure his vision would have been going dark, if everything wasn't dark already.

He shivered and leaned his head against the wall. There was something slimy there, but he didn't care. He could hear the spiders' legs tapping the outside of the fridge, but he had a hard time caring about that, either.

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A thousand-foot-tall pillar of fire is a pretty good way to draw attention. Maybe not as good as a sign that says "free" or "naked", but still very effective.

Mitarashi Anko was already headed in that direction, with a shopping bag of liquor bottles hanging from one hand, when the sky lit up. She narrowed her senses and realized there was a lot of chakra coming from the base of that burning column, chakra that was making her curse mark writhe and sting.

She wanted to deny it, but it had to be him, and she had a good idea about what he was after. Chakra surged through her legs as she threw herself forward. Her peripheral vision picked out a half-dozen other ninja rushing toward the fire, which winked out a moment later, leaving a bright streak across her retinas.

She tapped her radio with her free hand. The emergency channel was already buzzing, but her words silenced them all.

"The Sound is back," she said.

The muscles in her legs twitched and nearly cramped as chakra surged through them. She cleared the next building in a single bound, sending out a few clones in case the enemy was looking in her direction. At the top of her arc she could see two Sound ninja were fighting with the Uchiha brat on the roof of Gai's apartment. Both of the enemy ninja looked like teenagers, but she could sense they both bore the curse seal. The larger one looked almost normal, but the smaller one had a grotesque lump on the back of his neck that had to be one of Orochimaru's "improvements". Anko landed and the ninja were out of sight again. She didn't go for a high leap this time, instead dropping below the roofline and running along the side of an apartment complex, then through a twisting alley that opened up onto Gai's street.

Anko saw a six-armed freak hopping out the window of Gai's apartment. She made him her first target. He sensed her coming and leapt away, avoiding a half-dozen poisoned senbon needles. He leapt to the roof of a building on her side of the street, and paused to get a good look at her. He cursed and black whorls crawled out of under his clothes and across his skin.

The curse mark on her own shoulder twitched in sympathy. She gritted her teeth and forced it back under control. She heard the Uchiha brat howl in pain and saw most of the ANBU rush toward the rooftop to help him. The spider-boy spat an expanding net of webs in her direction and she had to focus, and trust the ANBU to get their job done.

"So you're Master Orochimaru's failed first try?" the spider boy called, bits of web stuck to his chin and lower lip. "I guess that means you're at least worth playing, though I didn't expect you to be an old lady."

"Me and 'lady' in the same sentence?" Anko called back. "You're dumber than you look!"

A spear made of hardened web shot through her belly just below the ribs, and she burst apart in a cloud of smoke. Anko frowned. The shot hadn't come from where she thought it would. The spider freak had some clones in play as well.

She wove a half dozen seals and bit her thumb, splattering blood across the roof. A seething ball of serpents appeared.

"Your target is the boy with six arms. He's pretty hard to miss."

The snakes nodded and separated. These ones were too young to argue about her lack of strategy, but smart enough not to haggle over payment before they'd accomplished anything.

She sprinted down the side of the building, planning to circle behind her target, but apparently he'd had a similar idea. She turned the corner into a swarming mass of spiders. The smallest of them were the size of dogs. She grinned and pulled her kunai.

Not all the spiders charged her. Some skittered down to the street, leaping at shocked civilians. She saw the ANBU splitting up to defend the villagers from the creatures, leaving her to take down their master.

It was all of a minute's work to slice, pummel and stab her way through, but the summoned spiders warned their master that she was coming. She leapt out onto the rooftops again, right into the path of an oncoming cloud of webs. Her hands blurred. She just cleared the cloud and it struck the building behind her. It stuck to the brick and mortar and then started to shrink, ripping the side off the building as it constricted back in on itself. A few startled civilians got up from beds and couches and ran-like beetles away from a flipped log.

A spike of hardened web resin caught an elderly woman through the lower back and spilled her guts across the floor of her living room.

"Ooops!" called the spider boy. "I thought that was you."

She zeroed in on him. All her senses and her instincts told her she was looking at the real thing and not a clone. She charged. Two pairs of his hands started weaving seals. She used replacement technique and appeared behind him, starting a new jutsu of her own.

She finished her seals just as he turned. A stream of webbing shot out of his mouth. A stream of flame shot out of hers. The web caught fire and the heat carried it up in the air. For a moment she was relieved that it had worked, but it just kept coming. She counted down the seconds in her mind. The longest she'd ever held this jutsu was three minutes, and that wasn't in the midst of battle. That was in a secure training ground where she could pass out afterward. She couldn't afford to waste her chakra on this all night.

A second stream of flame came up from her left and she let hers go out, falling back a bit as a second ANBU squad arrived on the field.

The spider boy made a gagging sound, but whatever was wrong with him didn't stop him from blocking two dozen kunai. The few that he didn't deflect with the weapons in his hands bounced off him with a dull rattling sound. Anko saw that more of the hardened webbing had oozed out of his skin to form armor. She thought it might reduce his mobility, but an ANBU in a parrot mask tried to rush him and got a punctured lung for his trouble. The spider boy gagged again, and spat up a long stream of goopy fluid that hardened in the shape of a bow.

She charged him before he could string it. As her feet hit the wall in front of him, her fingers finished the seals and snakes sprang from her sleeves, wrapping around his arms and neck. They tried to bite, but couldn't get through his armored skin. He twisted and she tried to glue herself to the wall with chakra, but he flung her around and she slammed into the side of the building. Her snakes hung on, keeping him tangled even as more webbing oozed out of him, covering them over wherever they touched him. They were being smothered, and they'd dispel in the next minute if they managed to survive this thrashing. He twisted, flinging her again, but an ANBU broke her fall and another jabbed the spider ninja through the lower back with a spear that glowed as if it had come straight out of the forge.

A third Leaf ninja arrived-some chunin whose name she couldn't recall-and flung a bolo at the speared Sound ninja. Anko could feel chakra crackling in the bolo's weights and the spear-wielder did, too, leaping back as the spinning weapon connected. The snakes fell from Anko's sleeves as the ANBU holding her teleported her away. She felt the blast even as they landed. The ANBU dropped her right away and it took a second to get herself facing in the right direction. Half the building had come down in the street. She leapt down to poke at the rubble. Her sense stretched out, but the spider boy's chakra just wasn't there. She saw a hand coated in hardened webbing sticking out of the bricks. She grabbed it and gave a sharp tug. The limb stopped just at the elbow.

"I've got the head over here," the bolo-throwing chunin said.

Anko grunted. She was almost disappointed that the fight had been so short, but with so many ninja in the neighborhood and so few targets, the little freak didn't have much of a chance. As she turned leapt towards Gai's building, a green blur whizzed by. She kept going, though she doubted there would be much left by the time she arrived.

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Sasuke never quit because of pain. It was frustration that unmade him. He trained and he focused and he let everything else go, and his efforts were not rewarded. That was not how it should be. He claimed to be faithless, a nihilist. Though he was barely a teenager, he told himself there were no gods or fate. He tried to believe only in revenge. He ignored for the most part the fact that his goals were not based on reality. You could give all and get nothing back. Edward Elric could have told him this if they had done anything besides bait each other. Jirobo's foot was doing a pretty good job of stomping that entrenched paradox out of Sasuke's head.

The last blow was only glancing and Sasuke stumbled gracelessly away from the following punch. He tripped over a crack in the half collapsed roof and fell. He saw the Sound ninja with the lumpy neck coming at him, but he could not move fast enough to dodge. He raised his arm to block. Instead of striking him, the Sound ninja grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet.

"You still think you're going to learn anything useful here? They don't trust you with real power," the enemy ninja said, as he grabbed a handful of Sasuke's hair and pulled his head up. "You want that, don't you? I had a speech to convince you, but to be honest, I like the hands-on approach better. Aren't you tired of being everyone's bitch?"

Sasuke punched him in the sternum, or at least tried to. A hand caught his fist; a hand that sprouted right out of his opponent's chest.

"My brother Ukon is getting a little impatient," the lumpy-necked ninja said.

Sasuke tried to pull away as another arm sprouted from Sound ninja's left side and the lump on his neck expanded and turned, revealing another face.

"Sakon, this ridiculous," the new face said. "Let Jirobo knock him out and Orochimaru can deal with him."

"Ah-hem!" interrupted a creaky voice.

Sasuke and his two-headed opponent turned to see a large tortoise standing beside them.

"Look up," the tortoise said.

Sasuke blamed his recent head injuries for obeying. Sakon did not have that excuse. As they looked up, a green hurricane swept into them from the side.

Sakon tumbled clear off the building, but an arm caught Sasuke around the chest. He looked down and saw it was bright green.

"Fear not, student of my great rival! Maito Gai, the handsome green beast of Konoha has arrived!" the Jonin bellowed.

The world tilted as Gai spun and kicked Jirobo in the face. Sasuke saw the large ninja's head snap back, but he managed to keep his feet.

"He drains chakra," Sasuke gasped, as Gai charged the Sound ninja without bothering to put him down.

"I noticed, student of my rival!" Gai said, "But it will take more than that to reduce my youthful vitality!"

Gai's next kick slammed Jirobo through an air-conditioner and off the side of the building as well. Gai finally set Sasuke down, and the teenager was embarrassed to find his own legs were too weak to support him. He looked around, wondering where Sakon and his sort-of-conjoined twin had disappeared to.

Something blurred at the corner of his eye. His hand went to his kunai pouch, but Gai grabbed him and dragged him to a different roof, moving so fast Sasuke wasn't sure if they had teleported or not. He looked back and saw Sakon and Ukon were now two separate people and their faces were both covered in the pulsing, crawling curse seal. An ANBU team swarmed onto the roof and surrounded them, but the two enemy ninjas launched some sort of compression wave attack that blasted them all off the building.

"Please wait here, student of my rival," Gai said.

The Jonin vanished again, appearing in front of the pair of Sound ninja and sweeping them both off their feet with a single kick. Jirobo crawled back onto the roof and charged, but Gai vanished, appearing behind him and slamming a foot into the base of his spine. Sasuke heard something crack, but the Sound ninja got up again. The lines of the curse mark swarmed across his exposed skin like ants. He lunged at Gai and Gai leapt back. Sakon fired a blast of sound at him, but Gai vanished in blur. He appeared next to Sakon, but Sakon used a replacement technique. A billboard advertising eye shadow was pulverized in his place.

A pair of ANBU darted across the roof, and Sakon leapt back into view, flushed from a temporary hiding place behind a vent. Jirobo charged Gai again. He either didn't cotton onto, or didn't care that Gai was too fast for him to catch. He just kept running at him and getting crushing kicks for his trouble. Sasuke wondered how anyone could be that stupid, to charge a stronger, faster opponent instead of coming up with a strategy…

Sasuke's mind wandered back to his pathetic attempt to injure Itachi. He must have looked just as dumb charging in over and over again.

Jirobo tried to trap Gai with some sort of earth Jutsu. The roof broke apart and tried to flow around Gai in a dome but the Jonin shattered the makeshift prison in a single punch. Jirobo's curse seal now covered his skin completely and knobby growths erupted along his shoulders and across his forehead.

The large Sound ninja tried to punch Gai again, missing by an entire blink. His fist connected with the rooftop, and half the building shattered and collapsed into the street. Sasuke heard civilians' panicked screaming. Gai vanished again and Jirobo looked around, waiting for the next strike. Sasuke spotted Gai first. The Jonin was down on the ground, lifting a huge piece of rubble so a man could drag his wife from underneath it. The woman's lower body was a mess of blood. Her husband scooped her up and ran.

The air stirred around Sasuke and he threw himself backwards, barely dodging Jirobo, who had taken advantage of the distraction. The Sound ninja stalked towards him as if there were no reason to hurry.

"I'm gonna crush you, loser," Jirobo growled.

Sasuke retreated to the edge of the roof. His curse mark had retreated behind its seal, leaving Sasuke feeling burned out and exhausted. He wondered if he even had the energy to stick himself to the side of the building. He was sure he was too weak in that moment to leap to the next one.

A puff of smoke appeared between them. When it cleared, a tiny tortoise stood glaring at the Sound ninja.

"Distraction!" it chirped.

The roof exploded upwards, flinging the Sound ninja high in the air. Sasuke lost his balance and fell backwards, but he managed to catch the edge of the bricks with his fingertips. His feet scrabbled against the wall, but he managed to climb back over the edge.

Jirobo was still up in the air. Whenever he started to fall, a green blur would strike him, keeping him well off the ground. Sasuke thought this might be part of Gai's strategy, but to him it seemed more like a cat playing with a mouse, or perhaps a cat with a soccer ball. He shook his head, trying to clear out the Naruto-like similes that were creeping in.

Hands clamped down on Sasuke's shoulders and he tried to pull away. The world blurred around him as his captor teleported them to yet another rooftop. He was released as soon as his feet touched down. He spun toward his opponent.

"Calm yourself, Uchiha," an ANBU in a Lynx mask said as Sasuke struggled to get oriented.

He looked up and saw Jirobo still bouncing around in the air. He saw either Ukon or Sakon on the roof he'd just been snatched from while he'd been gawping at the spectacle like a civilian.

His eyes were drawn upward again as Gai shouted something about a westward gale. The green blur hit Jirobo one last time. The ground shook and a wave of dust and chips of concrete rained over the neighborhood.

"Two confirmed dead, two still at large," the Lynx ANBU muttered into his radio.

It seemed the impossibly strong ninja Orochimaru had sent were not so great after all. Was that all the curse seal was good for, a brief burst of power and a specious feeling of superiority? It had helped him in the chunin exams, but perhaps any drug that made overtaxing your body painless would have done the same. He had tried to look up information on Orochimaru when he was first infected with the seal, but all he knew was that the former Leaf ninja was exiled for experimenting on unwilling ninja and civilians. Kakashi had even warned him that as the last Uchiha he would likely be a target of other villages trying to copy his blood limit, or even trying to simply steal the eyes right out of his head.

He wondered why the much more powerful ninja hadn't simply kidnapped him from the chunin exams instead of marking him with the seal and offering him power. Why had he sent these Sound ninja to lure him away from the village when they were also likely strong enough to take him by force? It made no sense…

Sasuke wished he had someone to talk to, someone who could help him work all this out, without turning him in as a traitor to the village if he did decide to leave. He ground his teeth together as his mind brought up images of family members long dead. The curse seal twitched as he thought of Itachi. He pictured him dead on the ground, his eyes plucked out. He looked at the crater down the street. The dust had cleared and he could see splattered blood, but it was too deep to see the Sound ninja lying dead at the bottom. The curse seal would not be enough to beat Itachi.

Sasuke looked over at the ANBU in the lynx mask. "There were two others," he said. "I couldn't see them, but I heard them fighting with Elric. There was a boy, and a girl using a flute to cast genjutsu."

The ANBU nodded and tapped his radio to alert the others. Gai appeared again, charging Sakon. The Sound ninja turned and fled.

Sasuke decided one thing. _I won't be joining Orochimaru tonight_.

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Hinata Hyuga startled awake, shrieking and flinging her arms about in a very un-ninja-like fashion. The little dog that had been licking her face easily avoided her flapping limbs.

"Are you hurt?" the dog asked.

Hinata recognized it from Kiba's family's compound but couldn't recall its name. "No, ma'am. But I don't know how I got here. I was going…somewhere?"

"This area was hit by a genjutsu. Most ninja below chunin level were knocked out by it, but the sounds of battle woke most of the others. I've been assigned to help evacuate, since civilians are running around in the way. If you are fit for duty, get to work."

Hinata was more than a little horrified. She could hear the fighting now and feel chakra bursting all over the neighborhood. She had been very tired lately, but there was no excuse for this.

"Yes, ma'am," Hinata said, bowing.

The dog had hurried away before Hinata realized she had been addressing a puppy as if it had higher rank. If her father had seen that, he'd have disowned her on the spot. She gulped and activated her Byakugan.

She saw dozens of people running and stumbling past her towards the emergency shelters. She started scanning the buildings for people who might have been trapped. She saw Gai's building half-collapsed and remembered why she had slipped out of her family compound that night.

She had written her apology this time, in case she lost her nerve. It seemed unlikely she would find Edward Elric at Gai's apartment now. She scanned the fleeing crowd, even if he was not the type to run from trouble. For a moment she thought she saw his automail arm, but there were so many people and so much chakra washing over the area that she wasn't sure. The arm disappeared around a building. She looked towards the fighting for moment and then took off running after Edward. As soon as she was sure he was alright, she would do what the dog told her.

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Tayuya sensed the chakra of the oncoming ninja, dozens of them, drawn by the pillar of fire. If Kidomaru wanted to stay and die playing stupid games, that wasn't her problem.

She used her toe to roll the web-covered prisoner through the dirt to make sure it wasn't sticky anymore. She didn't want her hair getting caught in any of the spider freak's vomit. She scooped Elric up and cast a new genjutsu to avoid notice, changing them into an old man and a sack that rattled like tin cans.

Jirobo and Sakon were making enough racket to wake the neighborhood from her sleeping spell and civilians had begun stumbling into the streets, providing her with cover. She passed a few ninja, probably not more than genin rank. It would have been so easy to break their necks, but it would not have been quiet. Unlike her idiot teammates, she was very aware of the value of stealth. She considered using her radio to let them know she would meet them at the first fall back point, but decided against it.

She knew Orochimaru would not be pleased if they returned without the Uchiha brat, but she at least would not be empty handed. She might be the only one to return alive anyway, given the shear number of Leaf ninja rushing into the neighborhood. She was sure she could have taken any of them one-on-one, but even Kimimaro would have trouble with this many.

Her curse seal twitched as Kidomaru activated his. The idiot must have backed himself into a corner already. She heard rumbling and an explosion that drowned out the other sounds of combat behind her. Around her civilians whimpered and wailed. She fought down the urge to rush ahead of the herd, but when she saw the entrance to an underground emergency shelter, she knew she had to break away. Even if no one there noticed anything odd about her, she couldn't just wait it out. The Leaf ninja had plenty of tracking specialists at their disposal, and she did not want to be stuck underground when the dogs, or bugs, or whatever other disgusting animal they summoned located her. She stepped out of the stream of people. Someone actually tried to grab her arm and drag her along. She shook herself free, shouting something vague about an elderly mother. She hurried down a side alley and no one followed.

It was a matter of minutes before the village wall was in sight. She knew the Leaf ninja wouldn't leave the boarders undefended, even with the huge battle going on in the center of town. She paused for a moment, considering strategy. Her summon creatures would draw attention even if they would make jumping the wall easier. She did not know if she could lose the leaf ninja in their own forest. Stealth would still be-

A white-hot pain shot through her shoulder. Her arm went numb. She turned and a petite foot slammed into her face. She started to lose her balance and a follow up kick to the stomach robbed her of it completely. She hit the ground and rolled, trying to open up some space between her and her attacker. She failed and a kunai slashed across the top of her other shoulder, slicing the strands that held her web-wrapped captive. Her prisoner went bouncing across the cobble street.

"SHIT!" she hissed, scrambling to pick him up again.

A small Hyuga girl beat her to him. The girl could barely lift Elric, but she managed to haul him a few yards away. They both knew she couldn't just flee with him, not without being cut down from behind.

"Well, you little bitch? What are you going to do?" Tayuya said, fighting back a smirk as the little girl flinched from her harsh language.

The girl tapped at a radio, but it seemed pretty obvious no one was answering. Tayuya brought her flute to her lips and cast a larger area genjutsu. If she could keep this quiet enough it wouldn't ruin her plan, and the girl didn't strike her as a noisy fighter. She didn't seem like a fighter at all actually.

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Things were not going well.

Sakon decided Tayuya and Kidomaru were at fault. That's how he'd tell it when they reported back, at least. They were the ones who let the Elric brat set off that fiery signal, after all.

He leapt sideways, barely dodging another kick from the green-spandex-clad maniac who pursued him. Even in his second state, he could not match the crazy jonin's strength. He tried to find Ukon so they could use their summons to slow him down, but his brother was well out of sight.

"You, villain!" Gai called, pointing at Sakon. "You will not escape again."

Sakon rolled his eyes. "What are you going to do about it, old man?"

In response, Gai pulled an I-beam out of a crumbling wall and used it to swat Sakon through the side of the building next door.

"YOU QUESTION THE POWERS OF MY YOUTH?"

Sakon shook his ringing head. He should have kept his mouth shut. He stumbled to his feet and teleported. He found some cover in the rubble of the building Jirobo had brought down in his fight. His shaking fingers found the scroll and he dragged it from his belt. He knew this was as likely to get him killed as to save him, but at least the Leaf ninja would suffer with him. He bit his thumb and smeared blood across the seal. Smoke exploded up from the chakra-infused paper.

When it cleared, a thin pale teenager stood looking down at him. His eyes were rimmed with red, and he reeked. Disinfectant warred with sour body odor. It seemed they'd dumped him straight from his hospital bed into the transport seal.

"I should kill you for your incompetents," the pale one said.

"Why don't you kill the Leaf ninja first, and we can discuss my death later," Sakon said, unable to hold the other's gaze.

When he looked up Kimimaro had vanished.

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**Author's Note**: So I'm not dead. How about that? This chapter has been driving me nuts for years, but it just isn't getting any better. How about if it is super terrible, we just pretend we never saw it, and move on to the next one?


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